Sexton: We must figure out why we come up short in World Cup efforts

By Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh

He’d faced the Springboks at Croke Park, the French at Stade de France and the English at Twickenham – but there was something else about running out at the Aviva Stadium against the All Blacks.

Johnny Sexton was a 69th-minute sub in the 66-28 humbling in New Plymouth, when Ireland had endured 65 minutes against New Zealand with just 14 men, but that didn’t count.

November, 2010, just the third Test match at the new ground, was when Sexton was given the nod over Ronan O’Gara and started his first test against the Kiwis.

“Before you play them you know it’s going to be the toughest game of the season, always,” Sexton said, just weeks out from his 12th game against them for Ireland or the Lions.

I vomited at half-time, there was just an incredible pace to the game, every collision was ferocious, every collision was like the first collision of the game. It was an eye-opener, one that you kind of think, ‘Wow, these guys are...’

He has no memory of throwing up in any of the other 81 Test matches or 193 caps for Leinster and Racing, which tells its own story.

Trailing off, he reminds you quickly that Ireland’s fitness and preparation levels have risen since that defeat, but there were still some tough days to come – the 66-0 humiliation in 2012 another game that could have easily called for ROG to hold back the Leinster’s man’s hair, and 2013’s close encounter when a rare Sexton miss cost Ireland so dearly.

But fast forward to 2018 and not only are Ireland and New Zealand closer than ever before on the world rankings – in first and second place – Sexton is one of a handful of Irish players who have gotten the better over the world champions. Not once, but twice.

One of those wins came last year in the red shirt of the Lions, granted, but it counts when it comes to dismantling the scaffolding of invincibility that had long since shrouded the Kiwis.

If things go to plan – and in the Rugby World Cup they always do, don’t they? - Ireland and New Zealand could come face to face in the World Cup final in Yokohama, a year to the day tomorrow.

Next month offers the last chance to take on southern hemisphere opposition ahead of the tournament in Japan, and though it’s hard to know what to read into results a year out, Sexton is looking for his side to perform.

“This is our last chance to play against them before the World Cup and if things go well in the pool, we could have a game against South Africa, but that could go either way and we could end up playing them [ABs] in the quarter-finals, so it’s important that we’re able to match it with them,” he said.

“We don’t worry about results generally, we always just talk about our performances and if we can perform against them, hopefully it will leave us in with a chance of getting the right result.”

When Ireland perform under Joe Schmidt it usually leads to a result, but there’s always a little more required against the All Blacks.

Witness the home defeat in 2015, two weeks after the historic win in Chicago.

Beauden Barrett skipped through midfield for a try that saw them race into an early lead – a sign of the heights the young Kiwi out-half was going to scale.

“We didn’t defend there like we were meant to defend, you know what I mean?” Sexton countered defensively, “We always have a good plan in place, it’s up to the players to implement the plan properly and we didn’t get that right and they scored a try. That’s how good you have to be against the All Blacks, you have to have a plan and you have to implement it to near perfection. At times, you’ll defend really well and they’ll still score and you have to dust yourself off and go again. That’s the biggest challenge about playing against them.”

And playing against Barrett. The Hurricanes No 10 has twice been voted the world’s best player and the man Sexton says is ‘the one to catch’.

He’s had his difficult days, too, though – although Sexton stood up for his fellow out-half when it was put to him that the ideal No 10 would be a mix of both players.: If I was fast, basically, is what you’re saying!” he said, smiling.

“No, I think he gets a bad...if you look at his stats, even during that Lions tour he got slated for the second Test when he kicked seven from ten on a windy, wet night in Wellington.

The game against South Africa, he only missed a few. But, like, it’s one of the hardest stadiums in the world to kick in, the wind can play absolute havoc. I’ve had sessions there where I’ve barely got a kick. So I think he gets a bit of unfair criticism in his kicking, and if you actually look at his statistics or whatever you want to look at, he’s a very good kicker and he’s a world class player. To score four tries in a game is incredible, and he had one disallowed as well, so he had potential to score five.

The pair don’t know each other that well, but Barrett has a unique position in Sexton’s, em, house.

“I spoke to him after we played in Chicago and that was the only time I’ve ever swapped jerseys with the All Blacks,” he said.

“It was a nice moment, it’s good to have an All Blacks jersey in my house.”

He could have another after next year’s tournament in Japan, but would he be happy with the semi-final that the IRFU’s strategic plan are aiming for?

“You never go into a tournament wanting to not win something, I’ve never gone into the Heineken Cup saying ‘oh, I hope we get to the quarters or the semis’, but at the same time we’ve never got past the [World Cup] quarter-finals,” he said.

“We’ve got to first of all figure out why that is. We’ve got to say to each other there’s been reasons why and we’ve got to make sure we don’t play our final in the group.

“Every Irish team, in 2007, 2011 and 2015, had the same massive aspirations of doing something special – and we’ve all come up short. We need to figure out why and put it right.” ...