Lacklustre Leinster must rediscover basics
Talented, driven, demanding.
The Ireland out-half captured perfectly the essence of a dressing-room hell-bent on self-improvement and it gave rise to a culture that refused to accept half-measures. One that secured a haul of Heineken Cups, Challenge Cup and Pro12 titles.
It would have been impossible then to imagine a scenario whereby Sexton could be stood in the dock and accused of symbolising the decline and fall of a once great rugby empire but that is exactly the case as matters stand this week.
Leinster’s 24-9 defeat in Toulon on Sunday all but condemned the province to a pool stage exit from this season’s Champions Cup given they had already lost to Wasps and Bath last month and their talisman suffered a miserable day at the Stade Felix Mayol.
This was Sexton’s first appearance in France since his return to Dublin following a two-year stint with Racing 92 and it happened to come a day after his successor at the Parisian club, Dan Carter, played a blinder on his debut in their defeat of Northampton Saints.
Add in the location of Leinster’s tie — the back yard of the team that usurped them as kings of Europe — and it appeared tailor-made for a man of his class and commitment to make a statement and the one he subsequently made certainly made people take notice.
L’Equipe yesterday said that his performance at the weekend was one that those who watched him play with Racing this last two campaigns would have recognised. It was not meant as a compliment and their summation of his efforts was bald and uncompromising.
The piece wrote of his “multiple wrong choices”, adding that he was totally off his game and that he symbolised perfectly the “powerlessness” of his club. It was withering stuff and impossible to argue with, even if Leo Cullen sought to defend his performance on Sunday.
Cullen’s questionable decision not to replace his out-half with Ian Madigan was explained away by stressing the need to make changes elsewhere but his side had little or no shot at claiming the win they so badly needed with a ten misfiring as Sexton was.
His kicking from the hands was dreadful — one restart failed to go ten metres — and he sent a penalty wide of the posts after the break that would have given his side the lead. His passing was little better, frequently flying high and to the back shoulder, or low and to ground.
What Madigan must have thought of it all for the 77 minutes he sat on the bench before coming on for Luke Fitzgerald can only be imagined, but the prospects of him playing for Harlequins must have greatly increased after the weekend’s events in both Limerick and Toulon.
Leinster are better set in that sense than Munster. Doubts over Ian Keatley’s abilities at the highest level have always lingered. Sexton has been deemed world class for a number of years and, at 30 years of age, has ample time to rediscover his form.
Yet the deterioration of his basics is considerable cause for alarm and he is far from alone. Gone are the days when Leinster fielded a side whose skillset surpassed all others.
Even Isa Nacewa, Mr Dependable, has developed a case of butter fingers in recent weeks.
News from France yesterday suggested that the province had unsuccessfully sounded out Bordeaux-Begles forwards coach Regis Sonnes, with Cullen hinting at what he believes is their main problem two days ago in pointing to recent breakdown woes when asked about a misfiring attack.
The overarching problem is not the breakdown, nor an attack that has managed just two tries in their last four outings against Wasps, Bath, Ulster and Toulon.
It is, rather, the very visible drop in all-round standards that has poisoned all facets of their game.
It was the squad’s skillset that Joe Schmidt identified as his chief project when he arrived at the club from Clermont Auvergne five years ago.
Senior players such as Sexton bought into that at the time.
A similar return to the basics is clearly required again.
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