JOHNNY Sexton paid tribute to Conor Murray as he set his sights on a final Grand Slam after yesterday's Six Nations victory over France.
Ireland's superb 32-19 win at the Aviva Stadium saw Andy Farrell's side produce a world-class performance to deservedly beat the defending champions.
It is a result that propels Ireland closer to only a fourth-ever Grand Slam.
READ MORE : Ireland player ratings as boost Grand Slam hopes against France
Scrum-half Murray, 34, took the difficult decision to play after his father, Gerry, suffered serious injuries in a road traffic collision in Limerick on Tuesday.
“It’s unbelievable really, isn’t it," said Sexton of his half-back partner's mentality.
“It’s a mark of the character of a player, who in my eyes, has always been a class operator. He’s always been world-class in his position. He changed the game, in many ways, for scrum-halves.
“It’s amazing, really, that he could show up today and be so calm, and put in the performance that he did.”
Sexton, 37, reiterated Ireland's desire to keep winning and to claim all the silverware going over the next five weeks.
“It’s been clear from the start, what we want to achieve,” he maintained. “It goes unsaid but everyone knows what we want to do. We won a Triple Crown last year but we want to go better this year.
“That’s what we speak about, to keep going on a trajectory like this as opposed to 2019 when we dipped. So, to get better is to win a championship or a Grand Slam.
“How you do that is by concentrating on the next two weeks and try to beat Italy away. We obviously saw the game last week, how tough it was for France.”
Sexton was distraught to have to come off in the 48th minute with a groin injury and could be a doubt for Ireland's trip to Rome to face Italy, along with Tadhg Beirne - who suffered an ankle injury and was in a moon boot after the game.
“(Uni) Atonio tackles me and landed on my groin," explained the 37-year-old. "It was another impact (injury) and I couldn’t run it off. I was gutted to come off, I was enjoying it. It felt good.
“The first game back is always difficult and then your second one, you always feel much better for it. But that’s life, I just have to look after it now and make sure I get myself right again."
Ross Byrne steered Ireland home in Sexton's absence as the team recorded a 13th win in a row at home in what was a scintillating encounter.
“It was an incredible game, wasn’t it,” Sexton smiled. "We concentrated on this week and we knew we had to be across it in terms of the championship and now we have got to decompress, take a few days off and come back.
“It’s not worth anything if we let it slip now against Italy in the next game. We have two weeks to prepare for that now and we need to be on top of our game going over there.”
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