Felipe Contepomi: I’d rather take Sexton as he is

To many of his team mates, Johnny Sexton has often been seen as a man who brings a Monday morning personality to a Saturday night game.

Not a pre-match press conference has gone by in the last few years without some player, a scrum-half or a winger or a prop — he an equal opportunity abuser — smiling at how he’s been verbally ripped asunder by the Leinster out-half.

A clip on the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour DVD shows him berating Wales scrum-half Rhys Webb, a player he’s barely familiar with, but still unafraid to offload his exacting standards upon.

So, it was no surprise to see him let rip in Thomond Park on Saturday, though the biggest point is that it’s now being viewed under the microscope of defeat.

That’s what Felipe Contepomi believes, at least, the former Leinster out-half — a passionate player himself — leaping to the defence of his old colleague.

Yes, Sexton has some learning to do as a captain, the Argentinian concedes, but he’d not ask the Dubliner to dilute any of the traits that have helped him to become — officially — the world’s best player.

“That personality made him the best player in the world, as well, so you can take it or leave it, you know, and I’d rather take it,” said Contepomi. “It’s something that he has to learn, for me, and try to control and that will make him even better, and maybe the best player [in the world] next year and the following year, but it’s hard, because we’re judging him on results, okay? and, if we would have got the right technical detail and won that game, we would have said, ‘oh how good was Johnny, he stood up’, or, ‘what a great leader’.

It’s very hard, I don’t like judging on results, I’d rather take the learning. Definitely, he has things to improve on, he’s human, but it’s not about him himself, it’s all about the team.

Contepomi pointed out that a rugby team has 15 players, so it’s not a case of two or three taking the blame for Saturday’s 26-17 defeat in Limerick, such as Cian Healy, Tadhg Furlong and James Lowe, the first two being yellow-carded, and the last being red-carded.

Overall, Leinster were scrappy, with 14 penalties conceded in total, with 10 coming in a first half that ended with Munster 13-3 ahead. Leinster then played the remaining 40 minutes with just 14 men, a far from ideal situation in Thomond Park.

“The whole team had moments where we have to improve,” said Contepomi. “[Johnny] wasn’t sent off. It’s not that I want to put the blame on Cian or Tadhg, we all made errors and that ill-discipline harmed the whole team. It’s about 15 players, not two or three.”

A poor first half was backed up by an improved second half, with Leinster just one score behind as the 60-minute mark passed. Then, it was time for their setpiece to let them down, not their discipline, and the late intercept by Keith Earls ended any hope of victory.

That passion brought us to a moment where we can still win the game, but we had some critical moments of losing a lineout seven-eight metres from the Munster tryline when we were 16-10 behind,” said Contepomi.

“Those are the moments that we need to nail or get right. Personally, I feel very proud of the guys for the way they played. We don’t have to go through the emotions of the moment. We just have to focus on playing rugby, because we are a very good team when we play rugby.”

Lowe could miss the crunch European games this month after being cited for his red-card tackle on Andrew Conway in Saturday’s clash.

A disciplinary hearing will take place tomorrow, with Lowe’s involvement in the clashes with Toulouse and Wasps on the line.

Ulster are up next for the reigning champions and, with Dan McFarland’s side sharing a conference with Leinster, the game may be even more important than the previous two interprovincials.

With Racing 92 visiting Belfast a week later in a crunch Champions Cup game, it’s tough to predict the northern province’s XV, but with Toulouse and Wasps to follow for Leinster, the RDS crowd can expect a relatively strong side to earn victory and build momentum ahead of the visit of the French giants.

“I’m personally very excited for the next four weeks,” said Contepomi. “We’ve got four big games and it can put us in a very good position in terms of results or it can be, not catastrophic, but it would force us to reschedule our plans for the last part of the season, but I think we are in good position to move forward.”