Ireland caught a glimpse of the future on Saturday when fly half Jonathan Sexton made a flawless debut in an easy 41-6 victory over Fiji at a slippery RDS. Skip related content
Leinster's Sexton, one of eight changes from the side that drew 20-20 with Australia last weekend, kicked a perfect 16 points in an unnervingly confident first international outing to cap off a remarkable personal turnaround this year.
Coach Declan Kidney was first to praise the 24-year-old who briefly dropped down to club rugby level in January after losing his provincial squad place only to return to lead Leinster to a Heineken Cup final win five months later.
"He's shown great maturity and that's what I like about Jonathan, (that he showed maturity) last year in times of adversity," Kidney told a news conference.
"Last year when things mightn't have been going his way, he stuck at it and that's a real sign of the person that's come though today," he added.
Sexton, in place of regular out half Ronan O'Gara for the day, put the Six Nations champions in front of the generally disjointed visitors with a penalty on 10 minutes.
Ireland were 10 in front 10 minutes later when a quick move off the back of a dominant scrum put Munster wing Keith Earls, another change from Sunday, in for a simple try.
Fiji found their feet towards the end of the first half and out half Nicky Little struck two successful penalties either side of another from Sexton to cut the deficit to a converted try.
However Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll, scorer of last week's last gasp equalising try, intercepted to score again after the break and, with help from fellow centre Gordon D'Arcy, put Earls in for a second just before the hour.
Ireland continued to boss their under-strength opponents with fullback Rob Kearney and wing Shane Horgan going over in the closing stages to complete the eventual rout.
Man of the match Sexton converted the last three tries from the tightest of angles to close out a memorable Irish bow.
The victory stretched the grand slam winners unbeaten run to 10 games with the only drawback ahead of next week's visit of South Africa being an injury to Denis Leamy.
The Munster flanker was carried off after his leg was trapped in a maul and Kidney said that although Leamy did not suffer a leg break, the injury confirmed the need to have players such as Sexton coming through.
"We said this time last year that we wanted a big squad and try and have fellas come through and when you see guys like Denis today and Luke (Fitzgerald) last pick up injuries, that's what you need it for," Kidney said.
"I heard a few things this time last year that if Ronan (O'Gara) got injured we were wrecked but I always thought Johnny had done well last year and there was nothing he did today that I hadn't seen him do over the last 12 or 15 months."
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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