O'Gara and Sexton starting for Ireland?

I read a couple of posts the last few months where people have suggested Kidney and co have been looking at an O'Gara/Sexton combo as backup to free up a position in the 30 man squad. I always thought people were half joking but it seems a real option now. They played together in the 2nd half against France and now even Thornley has mentioned it (see link).

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0822/1224302806582.html

What do people think? Defensively I shudder at the prospects of facing SA/Wallabies/France/England/ABs with both O'Gara/Sexton starting, and even going forward while both are great distributors/kickers neither are as prolific in penetrating lines of defence...

Why risk it? Are they looking to a 17/13 and using Rog/Sexton to enable another forward in the squad?

I'm confused!

It only happened as Felix Jones got injured. We are taking Darcy, Wallace, McFadden don't see it happening again.

As for picking a 17-13 split, the squad has already been announced as a 16-14 split.

I think it'd be a disaster. Sexton doesn't really have the defensive capability or the running ability to be an inside centre. But then again, it's becoming more and more clear that Gordon D'Arcy doesn't either...

Nevertheless I really don't think an O'Gara-Sexton partnership would work defensively and offensively. Neither can penetrate defenses and both have a tendency to kick a lot.

Sexton must start at 10 for Ireland. Was anyone a bit concerned about Sexton's tackling against France? He kept tackling really high. He looked as if he was trying to bear hug his opponent. I remember once he tried to do it to Julien Malzieu in the HC and got put on his ass. Oh well, hopefully that won't be a problem come the World Cup.

Not going to happen.

Only if injuries occur during a match.

sexton is a good tackler and footballer. i am personally more concerned with the coaching of alan gaffney than the personnel in the middle. yes drico and darcy are not the threat they were but we also play a backline system with no invention no good first phase moves and where players receive the ball ridiculously flat.

this is fine with two monsterous centres with great acceleration unfortunately darcy and o driscoll are not sonny bill williams and rougerie

Sonny Bill Williams and Rougerie. That would be a good center partnership. Munster could do with them. It would probably cost a bit to get them both. Any oil billionaires in Limerick?

haha. they certainly would be imposing

as for old billionaires... jp mc manus im sure would cough up to bring sonny bill to limerick. nonu will probably go after world cup.

I think it could work. Michael Lynagh and Phill Bennett served apprenticeships as centers, as did many other players. Ireland are a good team with a lot of quality players, however to be successful your key players need to be consistent and whilst Sexton is talented, he does seem erratic, so maybe working outside O'Gara during the world Cup might bring him on that last little bit.

wrong. sexton has been consistently average for ireland much like the rest of the team and their performance level over the last year. rog has had some decent games of the bench but has also missed crucial kicks (admittedly difficult ones).

rog's last major start was during the most frustrating irish performance of the last few years v wales when our game plan was to literally kick the ball away whenever we got it. dark ages stuff. not blaming him per se but if rog starting means 10 man rugby as it did v wales forget it. would rather come unstuck at least trying to play attacking rugby

sexton was at the helm with his best partner reddan for our only good performance of the last 15 months