Ireland seeking perfect 10 in Paris without Sexton

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When you receive a text message from your teenage son during school time, it is usually something to be concerned about.

The one to me on Thursday morning simply read ‘no sexton’.

Richard Mulligan reports.

It was probably the two words most used as news filtered out that Ireland would be without a key figure for their assault on France in round two of the Guinness Six Nations.

It is a body blow for Andy Farrell as the Irish and Les Bleus go head-to-head on Saturday afternoon in the French capital in what many see as this season’s Six Nations title decider.

There is no doubt the absence of Sexton – due to a hamstring issue – does perhaps edge the French higher in the favourites tag.

But the French would have been building a plan around combating Sexton’s influence, and Fabien Galthie admitted even he was taken by surprise that there was ‘non sexton’.

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