Sexton plays on the edge, says Leinster boss Cullen

Jonathan Sexton doesn’t do a whole lot wrong on the field and that probably explains why the recently named World Player of the Year has been getting it in the neck all week for his tempestuous showing in Thomond Park last Saturday.

Keith Wood and Brian O’Driscoll, both of whom know a thing about top-class rugby and what it is to wear an armband, have spoken at length on radio about Sexton’s evening in Limerick while podcasts and papers have joined the same chorus.

Sexton was out of line at times during Leinster’s loss to Munster seven days ago. His reaction to a legitimate Fineen Wycherley tackle in the opening minutes, when grabbing the flanker’s scrum cap and flinging it in his face, was out of order. It proved to be the spark that started the blaze, turning the first half into a fog of controversy and enmity, most of it emanating from the boys of blue, but did it merit a whole week of debate and dissection? Probably not.

It’s strange what can get people energised. Tadhg Furlong careered into an unsuspecting Chris Cloete at a ruck in a reckless manner that ended the Munster man’s game. He received only a yellow card for it and yet you would be blue in the face waiting for that to be analysed to anything like the same degree.

Sexton dominated the agenda again yesterday at Leinster’s pre-match press conference. Not exactly a surprise given both coaching staffs have prioritised next week’s European appointments and rolled out shadow sides for what should be a high-profile Guinness PRO14 interpro today.

Leo Cullen dealt with it well, including the thinly-disguised suggestion he may have actually erred in making Sexton skipper given his on-field general’s sometime volatile nature and issues that can sometimes raise in his, ahem, discussions with refs.

So, he was asked, what is it that actually makes him a good captain?

“Well, his drive for the team to be successful, to maximise their potential,” said Cullen. “He is someone who is literally maximising his potential, that’s why he’s World Player of the Year. He had an incredible year last year.

“The drive, the hunger he has to be successful, that’s what sets him apart from everybody else. At times, that’s when you’re right to the edge. Sometimes you might tip over the edge, that’s the fine line he operates in.

“That’s what makes him the player that he is and lots of the great players have been like that. I haven’t heard all the commentary over the week but there have been captains over the course of time in various different sports who have been on that edge.”

Cullen agreed when his old Leicester mucker Martin Johnson was offered up as an example of someone in that mould and the Leinster head coach added the rider that other players, and even the coaches, had to take some of the flak for the team’s indiscipline in Limerick.

Rob Kearney, who didn’t feature last week, echoed that. “The other guys around him have to take responsibility too. If our discipline is really good and we manage the start of the game and we don’t get caught in some of those positions, Johnny probably doesn’t have to talk to the ref.

“So he was probably a little frustrated at the team’s discipline and it rolled on into a little bit of frustration from himself. So there’s an onus on everyone around the captain to ensure our team’s discipline is as good as possible and then the referee becomes a little bit irrelevant.”

Cullen said Leinster would learn from their mistakes. Their sins in that first half against Munster were a “timely reminder”, violations that have cost them the services of James Lowe for two weeks and dialled up the scrutiny and pressure on the team.

“We just need to understand why we get ourselves in that situation where we are, at one stage, down to 13 men and down on the scoreboard. It’s not just one incident. There’s lots of different things where we don’t manage the pressure of the game and the pressure that Munster put us under.

“They’ve been involved in lots of these skirmishes in their recent games: Castres, Glasgow, even Ulster the week before where there are these fracas breaking out in the games, whereas it’s something that we haven’t encountered a huge amount... It’s about how we can be a bit more composed across the board, it’s not on one player.”

Toulouse at a sold-out RDS next week will be the first real test of what lessons Leinster learned at Thomond given 14 fit and available internationals have been stood down for this derby against an Ulster side that has also divested itself of many front-liners. Rob Kearney and Jack McGrath return from injuries today, though Cullen has brought in Ciaran Frawley rather than Ross Byrne for Sexton. All told, Leinster have included five academy players in their 23. As do Ulster.

More an ‘A’ game than an A-rated game.