Monday 23 February 2015 15:06, UK
George Ford has warned England against putting too much focus on Jonny Sexton ahead of Sunday’s pivotal RBS Six Nations clash against Ireland in Dublin.
Sexton returned from an enforced 12-week concussion lay-off last week against France and claimed man-of-the-match honours as he helped Ireland edge out the French 18-11.
France went public in the week leading up to the game with their intentions to target Sexton in the hope that doing so would limit Ireland’s attacking capabilities.
The 29-year-old rose to the challenge however and overcame a nasty clash of heads with mammoth 18-stone French centre Mathieu Bastareaud to drive Ireland to victory.
Ford is a big admirer of Sexton’s talents but warned that Ireland have many other weapons and knows it is important for England to be prepared for all of them.
"It's definitely not just a case of stop Sexton and you stop Ireland at all I don't think," said Ford, ahead of the potential Six Nations decider.
"I think he's a brilliant player, you saw that against France: after being out for 12 weeks to come back and play like that, he drove Ireland to that win.
"He's just massively influential in that team, everything goes through him. He's got a brilliant rugby brain; he's a very smart player.
"The biggest thing is his desire to win and hunger to get the best out of the players on his team, but also his determination to go out and give his best as well.
"But their physicality is unbelievable with the pack they've got. The breakdown is always massive against them, and that's probably what decides the game.
"Rory Best and Sean O'Brien are brilliant over the ball, and brilliant at disrupting other teams' ball too.
"So you've then got Simon Zebo, Tommy Bowe and Rob Kearney at full-back, who are all massively dangerous as well."
Still learning
Ford is just eight caps into his international career but with Owen Farrell – his chief rival for the English number ten shirt – injured, the 21-year-old knows a big performance in Dublin will go a long way towards securing a starting berth in Stuart Lancaster’s World Cup team later this year.
The Bath player is a keen student of the game and he admitted his opposite number on Sunday is one of the players he likes to study the most.
"You try to watch as many games as you can, just because you love rugby," said Ford. "But you also want to see the way others play, how they see the game and what they do.
"You're constantly learning watching games, so to watch Sexton how he goes about his game, the way he drives his team and how influential he is, that's something you can only learn from as a 10."
