England coach Eddie Jones said the parents of Ireland playmaker Jonathan Sexton should be concerned for his health ahead of Saturday’s Six Nations match at Twickenham.

Sexton, Ireland’s key playmaker, was on the receiving end of some rough treatment during the defending champions’ 10-9 defeat by France and appeared dazed come full-time in Paris.

The Leinster fly-half was stood down from rugby for 12 weeks in late 2014 after suffering four concussions inside 12 months and has since had several more concerning head injuries.

But Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was adamant nothing as serious as concussion had taken place at the Stade de France, saying Sexton’s latest blow was “neck and shoulder, more of a whiplash injury”.

But Jones, speaking after unveiling his team to play Ireland at England’s Bagshot training base on Thursday, questioned Schmidt’s decision to make public those details about Sexton’s condition.

“Sexton is an interesting one, they’ve talked about him having whiplash injury which is not a great thing to talk about,” he said.

“I’m sure his mother and father would be worried about that. Hopefully, the lad’s all right on Saturday to play,” the Australian added.

There is a belief that if you stop Sexton you go a long way to neutralising the attacking threat of injury-hit defending Six Nations champions Ireland.

While France’s treatment of Sexton was criticised in some quarters, Jones was adamant there was nothing intrinsically wrong in going after a team’s star men.

“We target players all the time. That’s part of rugby, is it not?” Jones said.

“There are 15 players out there. Are we supposed to not run at one player? Hang on, hang on, he’s got a red dot on his head, we don’t run at him,” the former Australia and Japan coach added ahead of his first home game in charge of England.

“Rugby’s a game of 15 players on the field. When we’re attacking, we’re attacking weak defenders. Why would we run at the strongest defender?

“We are not going to run at their strongest defenders, we’ll always run at their weakest.

“I’m not saying Sexton is a weak defender. Maybe France did. We’re going to be targeting players in the Ireland side.

“We want to win and you win a game of rugby by attacking their weak points and to say that’s unfair is just ridiculous.”

Meanwhile Ireland wing Andrew Trimble said Sexton was too experienced to be fazed by Jones’s comments.

“I don’t think Johnny will be frustrated by any of that in the slightest,” Trimble said. “I think there’s been enough talk about it.

“If Johnny knows he feels fit then I don’t think he’ll be frustrated in the slightest by it,” added Trimble. “He can definitely go out there and end a lot of that chat.

“He certainly got a hard time in the French game, with guys coming at him left, right and centre.

“Johnny’s confrontational and aggressive, and that’s just with us never mind the opposition.

“But Johnny can handle it. Johnny can handle himself more than most people out there, to be honest.”
Source :AFP