The Irish outhalf has moved on from the World Cup. Now he just wants to play in the Six Nations and do well, writes JOHNNY WATTERSON

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS before a big match? No. Ankle still hurting? No. Changed game plan for Wales? No.

Perhaps that’s Jonny Sexton’s strength. He confers order and clarity. There are few don’t knows, points of confusion. He once described himself as a worrier. An analyst maybe; a thinker, a plotter. Why should anxiety burrow in?

Sexton can put issues in their rightful place, even his despairing World Cup, where his dependable boot went temporarily native and he found himself on the bench watching Ronan O’Gara alive to the pressure and the opportunity. Disappointments don’t make sense. Learn and look ahead, not from choice but imperative.

He does just that. He can see Wales not through the prism of New Zealand but Aviva last December, his dummy dropkick from 50 metres and then planting it from 40 metres against Bath. A drubbing, 52-27 and a Sexton contribution of one try, six conversions, a drop goal and the man-of-the-match award. You choose what you need to remember. The World Cup hurt but Wales on Sunday is the opportunity O’Gara was given last autumn.

“I beat myself up a bit at the time,” he says of the World Cup. “It’s probably something that I’ve struggled with a little bit. But you learn a lot with setbacks. Obviously I place-kicked poorly in a couple of games. That can happen to any place-kicker. Unfortunately it happened to me on the world stage in the two biggest games of my career.

“It still doesn’t sit well with me that it happened then, something I’d been building up towards for a couple of years. It still hurts but I’ve tried to move on. That’s life. You move on from it. I’ve a lot of good people around me. That’s the fact of the matter. Now I want to play in the Six Nations and do well.”

Sexton steers away from Bath. His season so far, as a whole, stands up, the running battle with O’Gara keeping the country braying one way and the other.

Then he looks up incredulously when asked if he’s yet told Declan Kidney that he wants the number 10 jersey for himself, for keeps with none of the drama of O’Gara.

The Munster outhalf did just that when his skirmishes with the older David Humphreys came to a frothy head some years ago.

“I wish,” says Sexton. “I haven’t thought about asking. With Ireland, there’s a little bit more looking over your shoulder with Ronan. It’s something you have to get used to.”

He sounds resigned to the fact that it is him looking over his shoulder and in that there is a certainty of sorts as he goes into his 25th international game. He’s not the type of player that needs to hold a hand despite some unfamiliarity along the backline.

Sexton has only ever started one international match with scrumhalf Connor Murray – at last year’s World Cup – and has never played an international without Brian O’Driscoll a skip-pass away. Tommy Bowe, Andrew Trimble, Fergus McFadden, Eoin O’Malley and the injured Darren Cave, their names were all in the air but Keith Earls steps in running different lines, playing the defence his own way. Sexton needs no comfort blankets.

“I don’t think I’ve played a game for Ireland without Brian at 13,” he says. “But we’re going to have to get used to it. He’s not going to be around for the championship. We haven’t spoken about it. It’s different without Brian there. But we all have to up our game and make up for his absence.

“I know we have great players coming in. Keith is a Lion. He’s an outstanding player. He has attributes no other player in Ireland has. We’ll miss certain parts of Brian’s game but hopefully we can all raise our game in his absence.”

Wales have not yet selected, with injury to Rhys Priestland threatening James Hook on Sexton and Ireland. Hook has taken his talents to France, with Priestland – who made his international debut less than a year ago before being the Welsh World Cup pick – struggling to be fit. Hook has become a different animal. He has been playing regularly with Perpignan at outhalf, a change from Ospreys and Wales, where he changed between 10 and 12.

“Rhys obviously had a good World Cup and there’s a doubt about his fitness. That’s the rumour,” says Sexton. “I’ve seen James’s threat in the Top 14 and he’ll benefit from playing 10 every week because he was playing 12 for Ospreys and then 10 for Wales.

“They’re similar in many ways. They’ve long-kicking games and they are both threats with ball in hand. So we have to respect that. We’ll look at it when it’s announced. They’ve Stephen [Jones] and Gavin [Henson] as well so we have to wait and see.”

Rushing isn’t his thing really.