Sexton keen to win battle of out-halves with All-Black hero

TWO out-halves with very contrasting memories of the World Cup come face to face at Bath’s Recreation Ground on Sunday afternoon and Jonathan Sexton will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes.

The Leinster number 10 started the World Cup just ahead of Ronan O’Gara as Ireland’s playmaker but ended it as first reserve while Stephen Donald kicked what proved to be the winning penalty in the final having been plucked from obscurity.

It is surely only a matter of time before Hollywood takes an interest in Donald’s story and recalls how he was fishing for whitebait on the Waikato river when a succession of injuries forced Graham Henry to dig for his number.