Bernard Le Roux: I could tell Sexton was struggling

It’s good to talk. To really talk.

It happens all too rarely in the micro-managed environment that is a World Cup, but yesterday’s sitdown with Bernard Le Roux opened a more rounded window into Jonathan Sexton’s time with Racing Metro.

That one-dimensional story dominated the agenda this week, after an unnamed former colleague labelled the Irishman the ‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic of rugby’ and his old coach Laurent Labit described them both as ‘failures’ for the Irishman’s truncated two-year stint in Paris.

Le Roux knew Sexton well. The naturalised South African lived a few doors up from him in the French capital.

Now and again he would knock on Sexton’s door for a coffee and he spoke with genuine concern about how drained and tired his friend looked when he missed 12 weeks last season with concussion.

“I could actually see he was struggling,” said Le Roux who may start against Ireland.

Sexton’s first game back from his mandatory lay-off was for Ireland against France last February. Le Roux joked — ill-advisedly — that his then club-mate would require a helmet, but he was more circumspect this time and suggested the 10’s defence has improved since.

Sexton’s attitude supposedly jarred in France, though Le Roux didn’t make too much of the Irishman’s bark.

“He is such a perfectionist, he wants everything perfect. If you are a metre light or a metre short you can hear as he tells you straight out and not nicely,” he laughed. “He just goes mad sometimes. He is hard on himself, as a perfectionist. That is why he is playing rugby and all credit to that, he is not a bad bloke.

“I know off the field and on the field he always wants the best out of all his players. He doesn’t always communicate in the best way, but he still communicates in a good way and he gets the most out of the players around him. So, all credit to him. Brilliant, brilliant.”

Ultimately, Le Roux believes the two rocky years in the French capital will stand to the out-half, not least because of the time he got to spend with Ronan O’Gara whom he described as a “brilliant lad” who lights up the team with his personality.

O’Gara, he explained, “sees things the way no other people see it” and is someone who will go far as a coach, even if the promotion to defence coach resulted in a round of good-natured humour among the squad.

“We’ve got this WhatsApp group at Racing where we all post texts,” he laughed. “The other day someone posted a pic of someone running over Ronan O’Gara — ‘Ah, our defensive coach!’ Straight after, Alex (Dumoulin) posted a clip of all Ronan’s highlights of his career with — ‘Just shut up, mate.’”

Le Roux is one of seven Racing Metro players in Philippe Saint-Andre’s 31-man squad.

He signed on in 2009 as a medical joker on a three-month deal, not long after their elevation from the Pro D2.

He fell in love with Paris and any lingering doubts as to his long-term attachment to his new home were dispelled when Philippe Saint-Andre came calling in 2012.

“It’s amazing. When I got there it was a small club and had just got into the Top 14. There were obviously big players: Sebastian Chabal, Andrew Mehrtens, all the superstars, Francois Steyn. It was a big experience playing with all those class players. Jacky Lorenzetti is the owner of the club and he has invested a huge amount of money into building the club.

“Now we’ve got probably the best training facilities in the northern hemisphere. It’s an amazing club to play for. They’re building a new stadium, it’s grown so much. Dan Carter is coming. The club is really developing. We haven’t got the results we wanted in the last four years, quarter-final, semi-finals every year, but we’re slowly getting there.”

Sexton, whatever they say, played his part in that.