Johnny Sexton

pidgion

hi guys reading thru the debate? i am a munster fan but to be honest i cannot understand why in my opinion the ugly head of leinster munster head of jealousy rears its head when in honesty the debate should be is sexton good enough to knock rog off the no. ten maybe but only with experience and that he might well gain that contopomi is gone to fill the irish shirt is a great honour but experience is essential its allways good for a national team to have a few good replacements province is one thing national is another hopefully he will get his chance and he will be an exceptionall understudy to o gara and congrats to leinster on there fine win

anonymous_joe

thehighground wrote: »

What are you talking about? Carney only played wing for Munster - he lost his place to Dowling when Howlett arrived. Its called competition.

Use your head ffs.

The most talented back Munster have had since Cullen (and he was a joke at Munster) and yet he couldn't find a position in union. He's infinitely more talented than Dowling, and probably better than Howlett. He did after all captain GB in League.

It's just that they couldn't find a position for him in union. No idea whose fault that is, but it's the case.

thehighground wrote: »

Just because it didn't really work for Leinster with Contepomi at 10 (though few will admit it - I've been clobbered here for saying that Holwell was a much better OH than Contepomi).

Holwell was a genius, Contepomi's one of the best out-halves this country has seen, at a similar level to ROG and Humphreys. Amateur era game's so different there's little point mentioning them to be fair.

thecoolfreak

thehighground wrote: »

This is what you said exactly:



Both Wilkinson & Jones have played other positions (centres) that I can recall at international level.



The point is that if you have an injury crisis, you have players who have played that position. Nice if you have the depth of squad to cope with a couple of injuries. The advantage to the player is that when it comes to getting into a match day International 22, MOD will get into it before Mal O'Kelly or Leo Cullen, because MOD also plays back row.


The reason why Sexton was brought up in this context is because he couldn't get any game time as third choice OH in Leinster this past season until fairly recently.

In your opinion you think it is a good thing. Maybe it is for the individual player (as for instance some people think that John O'Shea has suffered at Man. Utd for being a utility player. One thing for sure though, Man. Utd. haven't suffered because O'Shea is a utility player. Neither has Munster because MOD, Leamy, Wally just get on with it and are capable of playing a couple of positions if called upon?

So do we deduce now that Sexton can only/will/wants to play one position and that is as OH?

Firstly, you cannot compare soccer to rugby in terms of playing different positions. Rugby is an incredibly technical game and you can't just switch positions at a drop of a hat.

Secondly, while MOD can play back row, it'll only be in the case of an extreme emergency. Same with Wallace and Leamy playing in the centre. These guys are very standard when played out of position (MOD is pretty standard when playing in his best position).

Whether a player can play only one position or 3 or 4 it doesn't matter, so long as he is good at his primary position.