Josh van der Flier: 'I’ve looked up to Johnny Sexton since I was a kid'

'He drives the standards for everyone and we’re all grateful to him for how good he makes the teams he is in and the players around him'

From an emotional jersey presentation by fellow centurion Paul O’Connell to the ceremonial samurai sword generously presented by Japan post-match, Johnny Sexton was on the receiving end of a lot of love on Saturday as he marked his 100th Ireland cap with a try at Aviva Stadium.

Yet it is what Sexton has given to team-mates that will be remembered most by Josh van der Flier about his captain and fly-half.

“His attention to detail, his competitiveness,” van der Flier said in tribute to his skipper. “With me, I’ve worked on defence in lineouts and we speak quite a lot and at this stage I know what he likes and doesn’t like.

“But also in attack, his understanding of how to manipulate defenders and create attacking shape is definitely something he has taught me a lot about. But also his day-to-day drive to be better and to be competitive. That winning mentality is something I’ve definitely learned about.”

The Ireland openside flanker described Sexton’s milestone as “an astounding achievement” and added: “We had a nice ceremony a couple of days ago and it was very emotional when the jerseys were being handed out (by forwards coach O’Connell). It was special to be a part of it.

“I’ve looked up to Johnny since I was a kid, maybe not so little, makes him feel old. He drives the standards for everyone and we’re all grateful to him for how good he makes the teams he is in and the players around him.

“It was nice to make it special for him and you could see what we all thought of him when he scored that try and everyone was piled up on top of him. It was a very special feeling and I’m glad we could make it a special day for him.”

It will be special again if Ireland can back their performance against Japan up with a victory over the All Blacks in Dublin this Saturday. Head coach Andy Farrell was impressed by his players for the most part in their nine-try, 60-5 win.

Of the impressive attacking display he said: “One hundred per cent, they owned it.

“That’s the key to any type of performance.

“What was key today was they understand how to get things going, there are always structures in place that people need to get everyone in order.

“But, at the same time, you don’t want to become too structured that we just become predictable, like a training-ground side.

“We don’t want an attack that’s too tidy, we want to play what’s in front of us. We were very disciplined in how we went about our job and got some rewards for that.”

Yet he added selection for next week was not as simple as naming the same starting XV to go again. “There’s a little bit more to it than that,” Farrell said on Saturday.

“We’re pretty fortunate that it looks like we’ve come through the game pretty good on the fitness front, a lot of the lads have put their hands up through performance.

“We’ll see how they are tomorrow when they turn up for recovery and we’ll make our decisions from there. We’re in a good spot on that front.”