Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton Set To Make History This Weekend
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World-class.
Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton will make history this weekend against the All Blacks when they become Ireland’s most-capped halfback pairing.
Overtaking Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer, the Murray and Sexton will take the field together for the 56th time on Saturday after being named at nine and ten respectively against New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
The pair first lined out together at the 2011 Rugby World Cup against the USA and have gone on to form a world-class partnership.
#RWC2019 #ThrowbackThursday look at the first pairing of @ConorMurray_9 & @JohnnySexton for Ireland at #RWC2011
On Saturday they’ll become Ireland’s most capped half back duo. #TeamOfUs #NZLvIRE #shouldertoshoulder pic.twitter.com/fBVL7eHw9q
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) October 17, 2019
Speaking earlier this week, Sexton said this weekend’s game is the biggest of his career.
“Yeah, it’s the biggest,” he explained on Monday.
“And in that regard then, it is the most exciting. We said it after Samoa, we said ‘Look lads, no matter who we play, this is the biggest game of our lives.’ You feel it straight away. You feel it when you wake up this morning and your mind just goes straight to the game. So sleep will probably be a challenge this week.
Here’s the Ireland team in full in case you missed it earlier.
Ireland team vs New Zealand
15. Rob Kearney
14. Keith Earls
13. Garry Ringrose
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. Jacob Stockdale
10. Johnny Sexton
9. Conor Murray
1. Cian Healy
2. Rory Best (c)
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Iain Henderson
5. James Ryan
6. Peter O’Mahony
7. Josh van der Flier
8. CJ Stander
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Beirne, Rhys Ruddock, Luke McGrath, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmou