Sexton: 'Hitting the straps too early again? Couldn’t be any further from our minds'

HERO: Ireland’s Johnny Sexton acknowledges the fans after the game. ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

It is not only team-mates who know what it is to live with a grumpy Johnny Sexton. Just ask Mrs Sexton.

Thankfully for all concerned, Ireland’s captain will arrive home in Dublin in fine spirits following his team’s series victory over New Zealand - the text message from his wife Laura before Saturday’s third Test at Sky Stadium now rendered moot.

Sexton’s famously intense drive to raise standards was parked until pre-season on Saturday night following Ireland’s 32-22 victory over the All Blacks.

Sexton’s famously intense drive to raise standards was parked until pre-season on Saturday night following Ireland’s 32-22 victory over the All Blacks. The fly-half and the rest of the Irish squad were marking their history-making achievements and celebrating five stag nights, including those of Peter O’Mahony and Tadhg Beirne, in Wellington ahead of the long trek home to Dublin.

“We’re looking forward to getting home and now and to enjoy some holidays and really soak it in,” Sexton, 37, said. “I got a text from my wife this morning, saying ‘No matter what happens today, you better leave it in New Zealand.’ 

“I said: ‘I’d better play well then.’ You’d be dragging it around all summer! So delighted to get a strong finish to the season because we know how it feels – for Leinster for example this season, the margins are incredibly small, the differences between winning and losing. You’ve just got to cherish it.” 

Cherishing the moment does not necessarily mean ranking it in comparison to other career highlights, of which there are many in Sexton’s case. In this case, being “right up there” with the 2018 Grand Slam, or the three previous wins over the All Blacks prior to this tour that he was involved in, is plenty good enough. So when asked if this series win was a greater achievement than that Six Nations slam, he replied: “It doesn’t have to be in place of something.

“We can go and do that now hopefully and win a Grand Slam with this group, a championship or… you don’t have to pick and choose but like I said, it’s an incredibly special day for everyone involved in this group but the country – I’m sure they’re going crazy at home, even though it’s early.” 

That 2018 Grand Slam remains a high point in a year that saw Ireland win Team of the Year, Joe Schmidt named Coach of the Year and Sexton crowned Player of the Year at the World Rugby Awards. Yet it also represents a high point that could not be sustained into the following year’s World Cup and Sexton urged his team to learn the lessons of that faltering campaign in Japan and of not peaking too soon.

“It’s about growth and learning the lessons from the tour and like I said before there’s plenty to do that so it’s up to us to make sure that we keep on going. But let’s not be scared by a little bit of success, you know?

“Hitting the straps too early again? Couldn’t be any further from our minds. The only focus for us is: Keep pushing forward.” 

Sexton was not the first player on this New Zealand tour to reference the improvements in mental strength made under IRFU Performance Coach Gary Keegan, who head coach Andy Farrell appointed in 2020, and he credited him with adding resilience to Ireland’s mindset.

“It’s something that we’ve worked on strongly since the World Cup, really – Faz initially and then Gary Keegan coming in and having a big role to play. Yeah, but it doesn’t just change automatically.

“It’s been gradual. I think we saw some improvements through the Six Nations where the thing swung when we were playing against 14 (at Twickenham, versus England) and we bounced back from that.

“We also bounced back from… it’s only 18 months ago that we were being written off altogether so that shows it as well, that shows fortitude.

“It would be amazing to go and pick out some of the articles that were written 18 months ago about us, about me. But it’s amazing, you know what I mean? It would be good to go back and look and keep our feet on the ground. It shows how strong we are mentally to do that.”