Bradley keen for insights from Sexton spell with Hoops

Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley has said the influence of Johnny Sexton will be a positive for the club as the Irish rugby great spends time with the Tallaght side ahead of a busy week of European and domestic action.

Sexton has been a keen observer around the Roadstone training ground in south Dublin this week as part of his own coaching education.

The former Ireland captain retired from playing after the 2023 World Cup and began pursuing a career in business.

But he has now gone back into rugby on a full-time basis, working as assistant coach with Ireland while he also had a role with the British and Irish Lions.

Sexton visited Premier League side Brentford recently, under their Irish manager Keith Andrews, and is this week with the Hoops as they prepare for a UEFA Conference League clash with Sparta Prague and a Sports Direct FAI Cup semi-final with Kerry on Sunday.

Bradley is looking forward to his conversations with Sexton and is eager for him to “critique” the environment.

The Shamrock Rovers boss said: “Johnny is obviously starting out on his coaching journey. Johnny has been a world class player for so long, and when you get an opportunity to have someone like that in the building, and him to learn from us and us to learn from him, that can only be positive for everyone.

“This morning we’ve had a video [session] and a really good conversation afterwards so we’ve already learned from each other. When you get the chance to work with world class people like Johnny Sexton, you’ve got to take that opportunity with both hands.

“We’ll sit down in the afternoon. I know he’s done a couple of visits and he’s going to do a couple more to other places. It’s about him critiquing us.

“He’s only in the door, so fresh eyes will be nice. And it’s us picking his brains on different scenarios and different situations.”

While that may be a bigger picture scenario, there are more pressing issues this week for the Hoops.

They begin their league phase campaign in Prague on Thursday against one of the better teams in the competition.

A 6-2 aggregate defeat to Sparta in the Champions League in 2024 showed the class of the Czech outfit.

But with being on the crest of a wave through their league form and coming through three rounds of Conference qualifiers, Bradley is not fearful of the fixture.

He said: “I said at the start of the year that we wanted to go and try and better what we did in Europe last year. We knew it was going to be difficult with not having the champions path but we had full belief that we could do it.

“We have put ourselves in the position [by qualifying], starting on Thursday night. We’ll start that journey again and hopefully we can go on to better than what we did last year. It’s a challenge but it’s one we’re really looking forward to

“Sparta Prague are a very good team. I think that’s quite clear to see. We’re well used to competing at this level and winning games at this level and we go there excited and looking forward to the challenge.

“They’re top of the league in Czech Republic. They’ve got international players, we know the level that we’re going up against. It’s a different competition, which is nice for us, it’s fresh and brings a different energy to it.”

Bradley, without giving specifics, has said he has the luxury of utilising the squad amid the busy end to the season.

With at least six European games as well as a possible FAI Cup final and five league encounters, he will need to rotate his players, something which data on their workload has been influencing.

That will start with Sunday’s FAI Cup semi-final against Kerry, knowing the Premier Division title is practically secured and has moved down the list of priorities.

They will be crowed champions on Friday, without playing, if Derry City fail to beat Sligo Rovers.

Bradley explained: “The fact that we’ve done our work so well in the league is really, really positive. It allows us to really focus on what’s in front of us.

“I think it’s really important that you use all the data that you have, all the information that you have and we’ve always done that. The squad is really, really good.

“It’s really competitive so we continue to use everybody at a different time.

“Every bit of information that we can gather and use to make those decisions is really, really important.”

Lee Grace has been ruled out of both matches this week, with Bradley eyeing the Conference clash with Celje in October for his return.

Watch the Sports Direct FAI Cup semi-finals with RTÉ Sport. Cork City v St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday from 7pm and Shamrock Rovers v Kerry on Sunday from 5.30pm. Both matches also on RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport

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