DUBLIN - Fly-half Jonathan Sexton's return to action after a 12-week absence does not mean he will be targeted by France when they play Six Nations champions Ireland at Lansdowne Road on Saturday, according to French captain Thierry Dusautoir.
Much has been made of 29-year-old Sexton being given early attention by flanker Dusautoir and massive centre Mathieu Bastareaud, having been stood down for three months after suffering at several concussions last year.
However, Dusautoir said Sexton was no different to any other fly-half the French opposed.
"We won't be targeting him (Sexton), no more than any other 10," the 33-year-old Dusautoir said Friday.
"Besides we have many other problems of our own with the comebacks of (No 8) Jamie Heaslip and (flanker) Sean O'Brien.
"The Irish side will be a better side than the one that played last weekend (they beat Italy 26-3).
"Sexton had a serious injury but I am sure he has all the capacities to play the game.
"He wouldn't be selected unless he had met all the demands for passing the concussion tests."
Scrum coach Yannick Bru concurred with the skipper.
"To target him would be to forget that Joe Schmidt (the Ireland coach) is very clever," said the 41-year-old former Toulouse and France hooker.
"Obviously first of all its very bad news for us that Sexton is playing in this game because it is a different Ireland team with him than without him as we saw last week.
"We respect him a great deal, he is a huge character and we will not target him we will just concentrate on our game and on our efficiency.
"With Joe you always know there are going to be surprises, so to get obsessed by Sexton would be a mistake, and they will be attacking us in certain areas where we may not expect to be."
Dusautoir, who celebrated the birth of a baby girl on Monday, said unlike many observers he hadn't been disappointed by France's performance in the opening 15-8 victory over Scotland although he accepted they would be facing a superior side to the Scots on Saturday.
"Ireland have been on the up since 2013 (when Schmidt took over) and they are the favourites for the title this time," said Dusautoir, the 2011 World Player of the Year largely for his outstanding World Cup where France lost 8-7 in the final to New Zealand.
"It would be an exploit for us to win here even though we as a unit believe we can beat them.
"I think if we can emerge relatively unscathed after the first 20 minutes, as the Irish always come out all guns firing, then we will be able to impose our game and strategy on them and stay in the match.
"However, what we have to do compared to last weekend is to be more clinical when we have chances near the tryline.
"A lot of other things were pleasing against the Scots but we were lacking in that department and we can't afford to do the same against the Irish."
AFP
