Ireland captain Jonanthan Sexton pays tribute to Conor Murray's character after Six Nations win

IRELAND captain Jonathan Sexton heaped praise on Conor Murray's character following the excellent display he turned in against France, despite a difficult week for the Patrickswell scrum-half.

Murray's father Gerry suffered serious injuries in a road traffic collision near his home while out cycling earlier this week.

Munster Rugby scrum-half Murray, who was winning his 102nd cap in Saturday's game at the Aviva Stadium, played a key role as Ireland made it back-to-back wins in the Six Nations with a 32-19 bonus point success over Les Bleus.

After Ireland captain Sexton paid tribute to his half-back partner Murray as Ireland secured a record 13th successive Dublin win to underline their status as the world’s top-ranked side.

Sexton said of Murray: "Unbelievable really isn’t it. It’s a mark of the character and the player. In my eyes he’s always been a class operator and he’s always been world class in his position.

"Amazing that he could show up today and be so clam and put in the performance that he did."

Ireland out-half Sexton insisted that Saturday's impressive bonus point win would count for little if they don't manage to see off Italy in Rome.

Sexton said: “It was an incredible game, wasn’t it? It felt like we were on the up after getting that (Keenan) try and then suddenly out of nothing they can come alive, that’s what we spoke about.

“Even though we won and got five points in the end, you still didn’t feel very comfortable.

“We knew how big it was in terms of the championship and now we’ve got to decompress, take a few days off and come back.

“It’s not worth anything if we let it slip now in terms of against Italy in the next game.”