Who Will Replace Johnny Sexton As Ireland’s No. 10?

on January 31, 2023 at 12:53 pm

Johnny Sexton, Ireland’s legendary fly-half, is now 37 so Irish fans are beginning to wonder who will replace Sexton as Ireland’s No. 10?

The Leinster man turns 38 this summer ahead of what is surely his last Rugby World Cup for his country. This means that Ireland need to begin to look to the future to find a replacement at fly-half.

Whoever it is that takes over from Sexton will have massive boots to fill as he has been one of the best players in the world over the past decade. The man who was once Ronan O’Gara’s backup now has a World Rugby Player of the Year trophy and two more nominations for the prestigious award in recognition of his level of play.

In the race to replace Sexton as Ireland’s no.10 some of the big names include Jack Crowley and Joey Carbery of Munster along with Leinster’s Ross Byrne.

We sat down with former Ireland star Alan Quinlan who gave us his thoughts on who is in line to replace Sexton and just how good Johnny Sexton is as a rugby player.

Many contenders to succeed Johnny Sexton as Ireland’s no.10

Everyone was surprised by Joey Carbery’s omission from the squad. But I think we’re probably forgetting the other two players Ross Byrne and Jack Crowley. You couldn’t have four out halves. It was tough for Joey Carberry because he’s a very talented player.

I think Jack Crowley and Ross Byrne, are the two form players behind Sexton and Joey has to go again and fight his way back into the squad.

Jack has the ability to make that gap smaller between the rest and Johnny Sexton. He started against Australia in November. He’s a very, very good player whose been playing centre for Munster. Ross Byrne also burn deserves a shot. He’s a really good temperament and a superb kicking flyhalf as well.

The only question mark there’s ever been is his ability to take the ball to the line and get the backline moving. When he plays for Leinster though he doesn’t seem to have a problem so I think it’s a bit unfair the way he’s been judged.

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Johnny Sexton is a simply unique rugby player

Johnny is so important to the whole set up. He would be important to any team given the level of performance, the leadership the playing ability that he shows.

He was probably one of the players in 2019 people were ready to send out to grass and say you know he’s had his time.

But he’s shown incredible strength and resilience and obviously quality to come back and play really well. He’s not bought into the expectation that when you hit your mid 30s that you’ve got to retire and finish. He has got better and better.

Obviously the system at the IRFU the team he plays with at Leinster helps that he can get breaks and limit his game time. He’s an incredibly important leader and player for Ireland.

He’s a unique player. Any team would be happy to have him.

You can check out our preview of Ireland’s Six Nations chances this year along with all of their fixtures and form going into the tournament.

Ireland is the top team in the world but won’t get carried away.

It was a wonderful year, the performances and the consistency of the team have been very impressive. The highlight being obviously in New Zealand winning the series there was amazing. Last year in the Six Nations, losing in Paris against France was disappointing. And it was a bit of a reality check for everybody really.

How good they can be and how good they will be at the World Cup in France.

It can get much better if we could pass the quarterfinals at the World Cup. That’s the big goal for everyone involved.

But that said it was a great year for Ireland. The results were good in November but I don’t know if the performance against Australia or Fiji were what they aspire to. It was a very good result against South Africa.

But nobody’s getting carried away here. Because we’ve been here before in 2018 and we had a brilliant year here winning the grand slam, a series in Australia, beat New Zealand in Dublin. We had a really disappointing 2019. So I think that will help the players that will help the squad and the fans keep their feet on the ground.

The world number one ranking is not something they’re going to buy into. They’ve got a good squad. If they keep people healthy and fit I think they’ll have a good chance of having a good year.