The leaders in the Irish rugby squad need to be strong enough to question Joe Schmidt and the team's gameplan if they have doubts, according to former Connacht and Leinster player Andy Dunne.
Dunne was speaking on Wednesday Night Rugby and questioned whether the current squad had the personalities to match past leaders such as Ronan O'Gara, Brian O'Driscoll and Keith Wood and said that the players "need to be given more scope".
"Woody would have been a very difficult character for coaches because he had an opinion and so did ROG and so did O'Connell and so did O'Driscoll. Is anyone on the playing staff asking Joe a question: 'actually I'm not so sure this is the right plan'?"
When it was suggested that Sexton was a personality to question something he disagreed with, Dunne disagreed saying that he felt Sexton was more about "implementing plans" than interrogating them.
If Sexton does, Dunne questioned, "Is he on his own? Is Peter O'Mahony? Is Rory Best?
"There were a lot of strong characters over the years from the golden generation of rugby who would, in my mind, in a healthy way, challenge the coach – not in a rebellious way, And I don't know if that is happening in the group."
Dunne added that the players needed to take more personal responsibility and accept that they can affect things if they feel a gameplan is not working anymore.
"You can have as many plans as you want but at some point, you have got to be reactive to what is in front of you," Dunne said.
"We don't seem to be that way we just seem to consistently persist with what we have been told to do."
Ireland take on Wales in their second last World Cup warm-up game this Saturday in Cardiff with kick-off at 2.30pm.
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