Saturday 25 February 2017 17:47, UK
Ireland’s Johnny Sexton will not be singled out for special treatment by France on Saturday, according to Les Bleus coach Yannick Bru.
The forwards coach insists France will be far busier fighting to contain Ireland's marauding loose-forward trio of CJ Stander, Sean O'Brien and Jamie Heaslip.
Bru is keen for France not to repeat the mistake of targeting Ireland's fly-half, admitting the tactic has not worked in the past.
"Each time we've wanted to target him we've made big mistakes," Bru said ahead of Saturday's visit to Dublin in the Six Nations.
"We didn't really work or speak about Sexton, we've spoken more about Heaslip, Stander and O'Brien. We know the big force of that Ireland team, we could see that in Italy, we could see them in Scotland.
"And Sexton was not there, so we haven't really worried about who would play fly-half for Ireland."
Bru has previous form when it comes to claiming France have learned their lesson on the futility of targeting Sexton.
Prior to an 18-11 loss in Dublin in 2015, Bru said of Sexton: "We respect him but to target him would be to forget that Joe Schmidt is very clever, so we will play as if Johnny wasn't there."
The Ireland playmaker promptly wound up with a black eye so severe he could hardly see, with France clearly continuing their bullying tactics.
Sexton was knocked unconscious but scored two tries when Ireland triumphed 22-20 in Paris to land the 2014 Six Nations title in Brian O'Driscoll's final Test match.
The 31-year-old copped yet more special attention when Ireland won 24-9 in the 2015 World Cup - and was taken out by Yoann Maestri's cynical late hit in France's 10-9 win in Paris in last year's Six Nations.
While Sexton, who returns after a month due to a calf injury, can certainly expect more of the same in the physicality stakes, Bru continued to wax lyrical on Ireland's back-row trio.
"It's their ability to play fast and well," said Bru, of Ireland's back-row's qualities.
"Their speed, their skills, they are fast and very skilled and they don't make many mistakes, and when they create that intensity in the game it's always a good performance.
"We will try to fight them with our defence, but we know it will be a big challenge.
"Since the last World Cup I've had a lot of nightmares about Ireland. We know how they play, they will have the position and they will make a lot of phases.
"We're ready to face them, we've worked on defence. We're convinced they will challenge us on our ability to be physically ready.
"We know everything about Ireland as they know everything about France. There won't be a lot of surprises but we're ready for the challenge."
