Sexton: I’ll learn from last year’s French faux pas

THERE must be hundreds of Irish rugby players, past and present, with bitter memories of France. Paris provides the backdrop for most of them but Jonathan Sexton’s stem from a freezing December night in Castres.

The young Dubliner had spent the first half of last season auditioning for the role of out-half along with Isa Nacewa but neither man had quite persuaded Michael Cheika that they were up to achieving the lead role.

Sexton started that Heineken Cup pool match at the Stade Pierre Antoine ten months ago and scored Leinster’s second try before the break, but his game management just wasn’t cutting it. When the sides re-emerged for the second-half, Sexton had been replaced by Felipe Contepomi. It was the Argentinian’s first game back from injury since late October. A huge call.

“At (that) stage, I thought I had played my last game for Leinster,” Sexton said last May after he had helped his club claim their first ever Heineken Cup. “I thought my Leinster career was over.”

Today, the 24-year-old plays his first competitive game on French soil since that career low and he doesn’t attempt to disguise his annoyance at being reminded of what was his darkest day.

“Hopefully I will last longer than a half this time,” he said. “I’ll learn from the experience and try and use it to my advantage. It is a tough place to go but we have won in France before and we know what it is going to take. It is not going to be easy but we will hopefully be ready for it.”

He may be young and relatively inexperienced but Sexton is, by all accounts, the type of guy who won’t be taken by surprise by anything he comes up against on the field either this weekend or any other.

Cian Healy has recently described him as an anorak, as the fella you would love to have on speed dial at a table quiz when any question relating to rugby happens to find its way into proceedings. His response is to say that he is and he isn’t.

He would be able to name most of the AIB League grounds in Division Two for instance, but only because he played there for a season. Division Three? Maybe, maybe not. His real specialist subject is a more practical one.

Any casual rugby observer would be able to compose a short CV for Brive’s English out-half Andy Goode but Sexton is able to dig deep into the files on the club’s other ten, Luciano Orquera.

Sexton can even tell you that the Italian has started most of Brive’s home games although he does dent that reputation as something of a ‘Statto’ by saying the Italian international is French.

“I wouldn’t pride myself on it. I wouldn’t shout about it, but I suppose most out-halves would have to know that stuff, wouldn’t they? They would have to know about the opposition. We would have to do the most homework out of everyone. Along with Leo we probably spend most time in the video room.

“He does the line-outs and I look at the players and see what they do. I learnt from Felipe who was good at doing that. He analysed a lot. Emmet Farrell is the analyst here and he played ten so he is great for pointing things out as well.”

It isn’t just the memories of Castres that Sexton and Leinster will be hoping to shake today. A win this afternoon is vital if the province is to dilute the damage done by last week’s defeat to London Irish. Both sides had been talked up as two of the last bastions for free-flowing, heads up running rugby prior to the kick-off before, predictably, producing an intense but uninspiring kickfest.

“We didn’t plan to get into such a kicking duel but, when all they are doing is kicking it to you, then they want you to run it back and turn you over, get field position that way. We were trying desperately not to get into that but it transpired that way. We have learned for it. If teams do that to us again we will have a better plan in place.”

He revealed: “It probably was the most frustrating game of the season for us. We went to the Ospreys with that sort of game plan ourselves, to just keep them in their half, and it worked out for us. It’s not a bad way to play when you go away from home so we can’t be giving out too much about them. We played rugby against Munster the week before and earlier in the season. This week the weather will be good in France hopefully, and they will play rugby. We will try to play rugby as well.”