Sexton and Co. forced to get skates on

Place-kickers in France, including Jonathan Sexton, are having to adjust their kicking style to ensure they do not fall foul of strict time laws which have been introduced in the Top 14.

Separate countdown clocks have been introduced in all Top 14 grounds with kickers allowed 60 seconds for a penalty and 90 seconds for a conversion. Referees have been told to strictly enforce the laws, with a scrum awarded to the opposition if a player delays.

Sexton said he realised after kicking the match-winner against Montpellier on the opening weekend that he almost fell foul of the law.

“The boys told me afterwards that I had pushed it pretty close, I had four or five seconds left apparently. But I was just trying to get the heart-rate down. I had played 78 minutes and the heart-rate was up so I was just trying to get into a routine, but in the back of mind I had that new time rule,” said Sexton.

He landed three penalties on Saturday but it was not enough to stop Racing Metro falling to their first defeat of the season when they went down 30-21 away to Bordeaux.

Bernard Jackman’s Grenoble were also away for the second weekend and a brave performance at Montpellier saw them denied at the death, 20-17, leaving them to have to settle for a bonus point, as they did in Clermont the previous week.

Jackman said they, too, have had to make adjustments for their kickers.

“In France you could have seven or eight kickers in a match 23 so you need to make sure they are all aware, that they all adjust their build-up to the kick, their process, they all adjust that to make it quicker and also they get used to doing that under fatigue.

“Obviously heart-rate is a big thing for a kicker. So when they practice kicking during the week it’s not just a matter of going out to kick 40 or 50 balls, they need to do some kind of simulation of making it match-like to try and improve their capacity to get their breathing down and to allow them to get into their process.”