Always room to improve, even after biggest wins

They spoke about their devastation but also their optimism

It’s such a thin line.

Seven years ago it all hinged on a late try in Croke Park and then another in Paris that went to a TMO judge. Five years ago, it all came down to a Stephen Jones’ penalty; then a year later, a Dan Parks kick. Last November, there was the All Blacks. Last Saturday, it was the French when again it was all boiled down to whether a TMO judge thought it was a try for France.

All those games and titles could so easily have gone the other way. Ireland were so close to not just the championship but the Slam in 2007 only to carelessly defend a restart after a late Ronan O’Gara try and conversion. They did win the Slam in 2009 because Jones missed. But a year later when Parks didn’t, Ireland missed out on a Triple Crown, prompting the country to fear for Johnny Sexton’s mental well being.

There were the same concerns last winter: the player once known as The Man Who Blew The (2010) Triple Crown was in danger of going to the grave in the public memory as The Man Who Blew The Chance To Finally Beat The All Blacks. There was even a stage last weekend when it looked as if you could have added a blown championship in 2014 to that epitaph.

Thankfully the man who missed two straightforward kicks also came up with two tries to win, not blow, that championship.

Of all those aforementioned games, the 2010 Triple Crown game against Scotland is probably the least remembered now but a tale from that game encapsulates so much about Ireland’s current out-half and breed of player.

A couple of days after that game, I attended a seminar on confidence in sport hosted by Enda McNulty, the performance coach. One of the punters attending questioned whether Sexton would recover from having had such a poor day’s place-kicking in such a big game. As it happened, Sexton was a client of McNulty’s and McNulty expressed his belief that Sexton would be fine.

Sure enough, the next weekend Sexton was quoted extensively in Sunday newspapers, happily putting himself forward to talk to the media. In his view he had actually played very well from general play against Scotland and had received and treasured a text message from Ollie Campbell saying as much. “There’s something a bit off (with my placekicking),” he said, “and I’ll get it sorted.”

Instead of deriding his whole game, Sexton chose to view his under performance in one aspect as a mere “blip”. “Maybe it’s not a bad thing,” he said, “fixing it will help me be a better player.”

That mentality would explain why Sexton would rebound to win two Heineken Cup titles over the following two years, and probably why he and Ireland won the Six Nations this year.

When you encounter a setback, don’t ‘catastrophise’; localise. Make the setback temporary when the rest of world thinks it’s permanent.

You heard the views of the Irish camp after losing to New Zealand last November. They spoke about their devastation but also their optimism from the positives of the day. At the time such a spin was rubbished in some quarters as a tolerance for more moral victories, those same critics ignorant of the winning principle that such an outlook is actually the foundation for future outright victories.

It was the same after Twickenham last month. In his post-match interview then, Joe Schmidt first highlighted the positives of the performance, setting the tone for the rest of the championship by reminding his team and the public that Ireland were still on course to win it.

Of course there were things to work on but there is always, even after your biggest wins.

Last Saturday underlined that, with Paul O’Connell speaking afterwards about how Ireland’s game management in the final minutes of games still has gains to make. McNulty has a term for that mindset. Can-I Thinking: Continuous And Never-ending Improvement. It’s probably no coincidence that McNulty has been a consultant to this Irish team the past 15 months, coming highly commended for his work with Leinster.

Clearly, Sexton needs to retain that mindset; clearly there is something still “a bit off” with his kicking. But again he didn’t let it affect his general game. It brought to mind the day when McNulty won his All-Ireland senior football medal with Armagh in 2002. Just before half-time Oisin McConville missed a penalty. For a moment, he thought that’s all he’d be remembered for, until at the break, teammates told him to park it. Then, when possibly one teammate too many had consoled him, Benny Tierney scowled at him. “Fix it!” snarled Tierney. “You missed one (goal), now get one! Fix it!”

Fired by both the support and challenge thrown at him by various colleagues, McConville would fire the decisive goal in the second half. Last Saturday, Sexton did much the same. To make up for two kicks, he saw to it that he scored two tries. He fixed it.

And the good thing for Ireland is that he and O’Connell and Schmidt with their Can-I thinking know there’s even more to fix.