'You need to win the World Cup, that's where the goals are' - Sexton dismisses world number one tag 

END GOAL: Ireland's Jonathan Sexton. ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

Johnny Sexton has dismissed Ireland’s number one ranking ahead of Saturday’s Dublin showdown with World Cup winners South Africa.

Ireland will welcome the Springboks to a sold-out Aviva Stadium this weekend for the first time since 2017, when Sexton played his part in a 38-3 trouncing of a touring side at a low ebb. 

Five years on and the South Africans will arrive at Lansdowne Road as world champions, Ireland’s first opponents in the Bank of Ireland Autumn Nations Series with the home side top of the World Rugby rankings following their historic success over the All Blacks in New Zealand this summer.

As mouth-watering as this clash of number one versus world champions is, the Ireland skipper on Tuesday played down the home side’s billing, stating that the top ranking mattered only once every four years in determining the pool seedings in the draw for the next World Cup, three years later.

“Honestly it’s not something we talk about that much,” Sexton said. “It’s not a goal to become number one in the world. That might sound stupid, in some sports it is, like golf or tennis but in rugby the rankings matter once and it's like three years out from the World Cup when they matter, which doesn't make that much sense either.

"But you don't speak about being....to be number one in the world, you need to win the World Cup, that's where the goals are.

"Obviously you want to be the best in Europe, you want to win the Six Nations, so those sort of goals have nothing to do with being world number one.

"I don't think too many teams read too much into it, I know the other teams will probably refer to us now, trying to put pressure on us, but we don't speak about it.” 

Neither did Ireland’s veteran fly-half, who first played against South Africa at Croke Park in 2009, place too much emphasis on the relevance of the two sides being pool rivals at next year’s World Cup with a pivotal penultimate fixture at Stade de France on September 23.

"If we got a win on Saturday it would be great, if we don't then we learn from it.

"We're going to learn both ways. We're going to learn about South Africa, we're going to see what it's like to play against this type of team, we haven't played against them in a few years and I think it's what we need.

"They're in our group at the World Cup and we have to make sure we take the learnings from it, win, lose or draw, but we're going in there to try and win the game, don't get me wrong.”