Peter Jackson: Leinster and Johnny Sexton running out of time

The bell has been tolling for Leinster for a while now and Europe’s triple champions are due to be counted out down on the Mediterranean before Christmas, writes Peter Jackson.

As if that’s not bad enough, Johnny Sexton might have beaten them to it amid the scrum wreckage at The Rec on Saturday, a defeat leaving Leinster to topple Toulon’s empire as the only way out of being scuttled in the harbour of Napoleon’s old naval base. Had Sexton’s valiant long-distance penalty not fallen short, Bath would have had cause for referring it to the TMO.

Nobody in the Test arena applies more painstaking care to the art of place-kicking than Sexton. His meticulous preparation takes time and in the old days when the game tended to be a law unto itself, he could take as long as he wanted without any referee daring to give him the hurry-up.