Ireland coach Joe Schmidt hailed Jonny Sexton as a perfectionist after his astute game management helped the Irish to a 50-7 Rugby World Cup defeat of Canada on Saturday.
Sexton notched up 14 points from a try, three conversions and a penalty to take his tally from internationals past 500 points.
But it was more his kicking from hand and willingness to unleash his free-running backs that had not just Schmidt but also Canada coach Kieran Crowley waxing lyrical.
The playmaker was at the heart of everything in the 55 minutes he played, instrumental in four tries for a 29-0 half-time lead that proved the bedrock of a convincing Pool D victory as the Canadians ran out of steam and conceded three more tries in the second period.
“I felt he played really well today,” Schmidt said. “He played 55 minutes to get man of the match, so he’s reasonably happy with that.
“He passed 500 points in international rugby, which is a real milestone for him and something he hugely deserved for all the effort he puts to making sure he’s well-prepared.”
Crowley, like Schmidt a New Zealander and the sole coach among the 20 present to have won a World Cup, added: “He’s not one of the most well-paid rugby players in the world for nothing, is he?
“His salary is the same as ours put together. Jonny’s got a good kicking game and gets the backs going so well, the team running so well.
“He has good game management and always creates a threat because he has a kicking threat and a running threat.
“He’s a pretty competent 10 which any team in the world would be happy to have in their side. And his goal kicking is obviously an added bonus. He controlled the game pretty well from a management perspective today.”
It had not started so slickly for the Leinster playmaker, who has moved back to Ireland after two disappointing seasons with Racing Metro in the French Top 14.
With an early overlap clearly on, Sexton fired a mispass straight into touch, an error on which Schmidt said the perfectionist would dwell.
“He will reflect on the game and the first wide pass he made looped into touch,” Schmidt said. “It was the perfect opportunity. It was the right decision, but he didn’t quite execute it accurately enough.
“He will probably chastise himself for that, in amongst about 30 other really positive moments. That’s the way he is driven and that’s how he drives the team.”
Ireland’s next match is against Romania at Twickenham on September 27. Schmidt said a game plan would be drawn up to tackle the eastern Europeans before playing Italy at the Olympic Stadium on October 4 and arguably the pool decider against France a week later, back at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
“We had a game plan tailored for Canada. It’s a mix of what we have been working on and it’s also a little bit tailored for what we have to do against Canada,” Schmidt said.
“The next game against Romania, we’ll probably try to do something that suits that game.”
sports@thenational.ae
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
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