Johnny Sexton: ‘There have been a lot of distractions for me’
The Ireland out-half has been targeted by opposition teams, with many of the hits landed on the Leinster star veering into the illegal — but no cards or citings were handed out to the guilty parties.
Sexton concedes big hits are part of the game, but feels a line has been crossed too often this year.
“It’s what you expect as a number 10, and I suppose we try to target the opposition number tens as well — except we try to do legally,” Sexton said, pointedly.
“You don’t know if it is a tactic or if it is an individual doing it off their own bat.
“The frustrating thing from my point of view is that nothing has been done in terms of... penalties are the worst things that have happened off a few of those late hits.
“It’s part of the game, some of them are marginal like the one at the weekend [against Italy]. Just as I’m releasing the ball, you get tackled, that’s fine, it is part of the game.
“So I don’t think those are as bad as a couple of the other ones. I don’t think it is a big deal. They can be sore at times when you are not expecting them. I suppose you just have to dust yourself off and go again.”
French second row Yoann Maestri’s body check in the Stade de France defeat happened right in front of referee Jaco Peyper, but resulted in only a penalty.
Sexton was removed from play minutes later, replaced by Ian Madigan, and the hit later gave England coach Eddie Jones cause to bring Sexton’s health into the pre-match mind games.
Jones spoke of how Sexton’s parents must be worried when ever their son takes to the field, and while the player admits he heard a lot of the off-field commentary on his health, he’s learned to shrug off much of it.
“As a 10, you go through highs and lows,” he said.
“There have been a lot of distractions for me over the last number of weeks, since the start of the championship, really.
“But I suppose the longer you are in the game, the better you become at trying to deal with those. I think you can put things in perspective a little bit also.
“To be honest, I would rather be playing a little bit worse and winning. At the end of the day, when you’re playing number 10, you judge yourself on results. And we haven’t got them. And when you are playing 10, you blame yourself as much as you look at the other guys around you.”
Ireland have been close but not close enough this year, with Sexton adamant they let both France and England off the hook.
Victory over Scotland will bring a positive end to a bittersweet championship — “we don’t want to finish third, we want to finish first, but third is at least better than fifth” — but Sexton believes there’s still optimism hidden in the injury-hit campaign.
“When you go through the squad, there is a real mix of experience and youth; guys that are involved in their first Six Nations campaign have acquitted themselves really well,” he said.
“Guys like Josh [Van der Flier] have done really well. I think we’ll be in a pretty good condition in four years. I hope I’ll be still around!
“You look at the guys from the backline at the weekend, Robbie [Henshaw], [Keith] Earlsy, [Simon] Zebo, they’ll be around. Jared [Payne] and [Andrew] Trims could be around in four years.
“You look at Brad Thorn winning the World Cup at 36-37 years of age. You could see someone like Jamie Heaslip doing that.
“The longer the game is professional, the more you will see guys playing to an older age. I want to play for as long as I can, anyway.”
Here’s a little extra sport. Watch the latest BallTalk for the best sports chat and analysis
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
