Sexton's mind remains on the job at hand even as time ticks by

This isn’t a man prepared to slip silently into the shadows.

Johnny Sexton at Ireland training in January

Every day is a learning day. Even those spent in the stands. A hamstring injury suffered in training three days previously confined Johnny Sexton to a watching brief two weekends ago and don’t think it hasn’t crossed his mind that the setback all but cost him one last chance to face the French in a Six Nations game in Paris.

“Yeah, of course. They’re the little things, that every opportunity you get to play in a green jersey when you’re my age, that you know it could be last. It could be your last of that fixture."