Sexton says despite frustrations, it’s always been a happy camp

Of all the barometers used to measure the mood in Ireland camp this last six weeks, the reliance on Jonathan Sexton’s body language must have been up there with the most wildly inaccurate. The out-half’s bark is heard far more often at Ireland games than the ‘Fields of Athenry’ and his remorseless demand for perfection in everything the team does permeates the pitches at the team’s base in Carton House.

He is Joe Schmidt in a better-fitting jersey. It was odd then that the 33-year old’s grumpiness should have been landed upon as some sort of window into the soul of the squad. That his kicking of a towel and uttering of a few expletives as he left the field in Rome was examined more forensically than fingerprints on a raided vault.