‘At least let’s play our best’ says Johnny Sexton

And for Sexton, like his defence coach a member of the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand last summer, those emotions are all too familiar to last summer’s test series with the All Blacks.

One-nil down and facing a do-or-die series saver in the southern hemisphere, the parallels with the 2017 Lions tour and this Irish odyssey in Australia against the Wallabies are obvious although Sexton yesterday recalled another coincidence that links the two situations as the fly-half prepares for a likely return to the No. 10 jersey following an outing on the replacements bench.