Johnny Sexton should succeed Isa Nacewa as Leinster captain

Leinster captain Isa Nacewa will retire at the end of the current campaign and the province will have to appoint his successor as they prepare for their Champions Cup defence next season.

Leinster fly-half Johnny Sexton is the third longest serving player at the club behind Rob Kearney and Devin Toner and former teammate Eoin O'Malley believes the Ireland pivot is the logical successor to Nacewa as the club's captain. "Certainly Johnny is up there," said O'Malley on the latest episode of The Hard Yards. "I think people would argue there's too much on his shoulders as a kicker, and as an out-half, and all the rest of that, but I don't think he cares. He loves it. "He wants to be that guy and if he's not going to be captain he's certainly going to be making decisions anyway. "He's probably my pick but then you obviously have the other issue that he's not going to be there for the full season. He's going to be out a lot of the time." [Listen to the full discussion from the 42:30 mark below] Former Munster centre James Downey said that the province would probably be more inclined to appoint a player in the mould of Kevin McLaughlin, Shane Jennings or Leo Cullen, essentially, players that would be held in high regard at the club and captains that would most likely be playing for Leinster during the international windows. "If you look at the way Leinster have had their captains they've had Kev [McLaughlin] and Jenno [Shane Jennings] and these are lads that have always been around the club. "I don't know if they've had joint captains before but they like to have the captain there and setting the tone and the culture every week. I don't know, it's a tough one. I always liked to have my captain in the pack just because they're in the coal face. "I used to not like a full-back running up and having a chat. They haven't a clue what's going on in the forwards."