Sexton off to mixed start

Racing Metro 19 Brive 14

Yet, as he stepped from the Racing Metro coach on Saturday, 500kms from his new base in Paris, this must have seemed surreal. Racing moved the match to the seaside because they felt all their fans would be on holidays.

Brive, 150km nearer than the ‘home’ team’s base, also travelled in decent numbers and O’Gara, with Jonathan Sexton about 20 paces in front of him, walked through the blue-and-white Racing and black-and-white clad Brive supporters from the road to the dressing room at the back of the stand. And then, about halfway along the 100m walk, a Munster supporter clad in one of the old style Bank of Ireland jerseys put it all into perspective.