Johnny Sexton Lights A Fire With Wales Claim Ahead Of Six Nations Opener
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Rivals.
When two Six Nations teams go toe-to-toe in rugby’s greatest championship there’s always a spark – but sometimes that spark leads to a fire, and that’s more often the case when Ireland and Wales lock horns.
The two nations have had some epic battles over the years from that infamous game in 2011 with the Mike Phillips try that enraged a nation to Ireland’s epic Grand Slam in 2009 and 60 seconds of the most physical rugby you will ever see back in 2017.
Something special generally happens when Ireland and Wales meet and these Johnny Sexton comments mike help get that spark going this weekend.
Speaking earlier this week, the Ireland captain said Wales have made it very clear that Ireland are one of their most “disliked teams.”
“Every international is tough, you know what I mean?” Sexton began.
“And Wales have made it clear that I think Ireland are up on their list of most disliked teams. I don’t know if that’s current or if it’s past but that’s been out there.
“Look, again, we don’t really think about these types of things. We’re honestly just so focused on training at the moment, training tomorrow and we take it day by day and, yeah, we’ve had some tough encounters with Wales over…the last time we were in Cardiff we got hockeyed. It was a particularly dark day. They ended up winning the Grand Slam that day so that was only a couple of years ago.
“That’s the same team with the majority of the same players so we know that any team can have a bad campaign at any stage or a bad game and ultimately you can turn it around pretty quick.
“We’re expecting a top-quality Welsh team. When you look at the players they have through their ranks, look at Alun Wyn up front, you look at their half-backs, with Biggar, the amount of caps that he’s got, Gareth Davies, Jon Davies, Leigh Halfpenny, they are littered with caps through.
“They have so much experience and they’ve had highs and lows like any international player has and I’m sure they’ll be in good stead come Sunday as well so it’s all systems go now.”
Roll on Sunday.
