How to beat the best? Sexton: ‘We need to go out with that attacking mindset’

Whether you are beating the All Blacks five tries to four or grinding it out in a tight arm-wrestle, Johnny Sexton knows the common thread to Ireland’s recent successes against the best team in the world was to never switch off.

Beating New Zealand, as Ireland finally managed after 111 years in Chicago in 2016 and again on home soil last November, is as much a mental challenge as a physical and tactical effort and Sexton and his team will have to employ maximum concentration as well as play to the peak of their powers this Saturday if they are to record a third victory in three years, this time in a World Cup quarter-final.