Johnny Sexton unruffled but Eddie Jones has no regrets

To the victor the spoils, naturally, but while a victory for England gave Eddie Jones the last laugh, Johnny Sexton was able to leave Twickenham with head held high and intact after a strong performance made all the more impressive given the circumstances.

Head coach Jones channelled his inner Edith Piaf when after the match, he said he regretted not a word of his pre-match comments regarding Sexton’s health and what he imagined the Irish fly-half’s parents might be thinking about it.

That was a luxury he had earned by presiding over a third win in a row to put a Six Nations grand slam in sight, and you could be sure he was not going to be losing any sleep over the matter regardless of the outrage of the Irish media.

Sexton, though, had not shirked from his mission to make life difficult for the home side. Maybe he had used as extra motivation Jones’s less-than-sensitive assertion that his mother and father were concerned for their son’s health following the injury he had suffered against France 14 days earlier, an issue described by Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt as a “whiplash-type injury” affecting his neck and shoulder.

Or maybe he followed his captain Rory Best’s lead that it was merely a “sideshow”. Either way Sexton played with poise and determination throughout his 77 minutes on the field before making way for Ian Madigan. It had been difficult, initially, for him to impose himself as England dominated the first half.

Sexton had scored the first points of the contest six minutes in when he sent over a penalty from between the five and 15 metre tramlines in from the right touchline, but then saw very little of the ball as England took ownership of it and Ireland’s half for the opening 40 minutes.

The second half saw a lot more involvement from the fly-half as Ireland finally imposed themselves, Sexton’s positional kicking superb and his decision-making excellent as he put his forward pack in the right areas to launch a platform for success. Alas, the lineout repeatedly failed to deliver from the positions their playmaker had served up for them.

Similarly, his outside backs came up short, Robbie Henshaw losing his one-handed grip on the ball in the corner thanks to Jack Nowell’s last-ditch intervention after Sexton had released the centre into open territory down the right following a superb break from inside his own half.

It was not for the want of trying and Jones’s tactic of trying to unsettle the player had clearly been well thought out.

“He’s a key player, isn’t he?” the Australian, said post-match, having cited Best’s dismissal of his pre-game comments to defuse questions about the wisdom of using them.

“That’s just the sideshow, it’s finished, mate, the main event’s just gone past, I’m not talking about the sideshow,” Jones said when asked if he had regrets, before the dialogue with Irish journalists became a little heated.

What about mentioning Sexton’s parents?

“I don’t regret anything mate. Why would I regret it?”

Perhaps his family have nothing to do with the rugby?

“So what?” Jones snapped back. “Look, Ireland said Johnny had whiplash. That came from them, not me.”

“From this press conference onwards I’m putting a media ban on myself,” he laughed. “I don’t want to be accused of scaremongering. From here until next Friday before the Wales match I don’t want to talk to the media.

“If I don’t say anything you will come away from the press conference and say it’s boring. If I say something, then I am scaremongering so I can’t win.”

The one thing Jones did do was win, though. And judging by Sexton’s performance, those comments had no effect on the fly-half’s performance, at least according to Ireland boss Joe Schmidt.

“Look, he motivates himself really,” Schmidt said of Sexton. “He’s very motivated. He’s not distracted by those sort of comments, and it’s just not something we do. We just try to look after ourselves and try to commit to the rugby values we believe in and forge ahead like that.

“We’re pretty committed to sticking to that and we’ll roll our sleeves up and try and work our way into those last two games and again try to combine the character and enterprise we showed today with a little bit more experience and know-how and hopefully that can be sufficient to get a result.”