Johnny Sexton has admitted he fully expects France to try to blast him out of Sunday’s crucial clash by ordering freight-train centre Mathieu Bastareaud to steamroller him.
Fly-half Sexton has urged Ireland to produce the best performance of coach Joe Schmidt’s tenure to beat the French and tee up a World Cup quarter-final against Argentina.
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France sent Toulon battering-ram Bastareaud straight down Sexton’s channel in February’s Six Nations clash; with the playmaker only just back after a three-month concussion lay-off.
Ireland choke-tackled Bastareaud out of the equation to win 18-11 in Dublin that night, and will demand more of the same to chase victory in Cardiff next week that would allow Schmidt’s men to avoid the All Blacks’ half of the draw.
“He’s a hard man to stop and I know it better than most,” said Sexton of Bastareaud.
“I’ve come off second-best a couple of times but he sucks in a lot of defenders and he looks like he’s got himself in really good shape.
“It’s the same for all their players, I think they possess power all across their backline and pace to burn as well.
“So we’ve got to be on top of our game from that point of view, and I’m sure we’ll come up with some kind of plan to help us stop him.
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“They said before the last game they were going to come down my channel because I was obviously coming back from a lay-off, and I don’t see it being any different this time.
“You always want to target the opposition 10 and I’m sure they’ll go there again.”
Sexton added: “We probably do need the best performance of Joe’s time to win this weekend.”
Ireland edged past Italy 16-9 at London’s Olympic Stadium at the weekend, securing their last-eight berth, but their patchy showing left coaches and players targeting comprehensive improvement in order to beat France. Flanker Sean O’Brien was one of them, and he again highlighted the threat of man mountain Bastareaud.
“France are very physical, they pride themselves on that and it will be no different when they play us,” said O’Brien.
“We have to expect huge physicality, at international level you’re going to be in for a battle.
“So you’ve got to prepare yourself for that in the week and make sure you’re ready to rock come the weekend.
“Mathieu Bastareaud is always someone who will lead that charge for them.
“You’ve got to take his space away, he’s an intelligent rugby player, he’s obviously very, very strong and he’s a leader for France.
“He’s a very, very dangerous player and one we’ve got to keep an eye out for.”
