Johnny Sexton made to wait for decision after lengthy disciplinary hearing

The Ireland out-half answered misconduct charges arising from the aftermath of the Champions Cup final against by La Rochelle

AU REVOIR: Ireland's Johnny Sexton will retire after the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France.

Johnny Sexton and Ireland are going to have to wait to hear the veteran captain and fly-half’s fate following a decision to delay the outcome of the independent disciplinary hearing he faced on Thursday.

Both Sexton and his former province faced a three-person disciplinary hearing brought by Champions Cup organisers EPCR to answer misconduct charges arising in the aftermath of the May 20 final defeat by La Rochelle. Sexton, who was not playing in the game following surgery on a groin injury, faces accusations he made comments and gestures to match referee Jaco Peyper and his assistants while Leinster stood accused of “failing to exercise reasonable control” of their player.

While Sexton, now 38, has played his final game for his province ahead of his retirement from the game at the end of this autumn’s Rugby World Cup, his involvement in the tournament and the build-up to it hangs in the balance pending the decision of the disciplinary panel headed by its English chair Christopher Quinlan KC, with assistance from Australia’s Adam Casseldon KC and Marcello D’Orey form Portugal.

The hearing, held by video conference, is understood to have taken more than five hours to complete but there was no immediate decision following its conclusion of both the Sexton and Leinster Rugby disciplinary hearings with the committee telling EPCR it will communicate their decisions to Sexton and Leinster Rugby “in the coming days.” 

Sexton, who returned to training at the start of Ireland’s first pre-World Cup training camp in Dublin, has not played since sustaining the groin injury in the Six Nations final round and Grand Slam-securing victory over England at Aviva Stadium on March 18. Both he and Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will want to give him as much game time as necessary ahead of the World Cup pool kick off against Romania in Bordeaux on Saturday, September 9. 

Ireland have scheduled three pre-tournament tune-ups, two in Dublin against Italy on August 5 and England on August 19 before a final run out against Samoa in Bayonne on August 26. Any suspension if the panel finds that misconduct has indeed occurred will clearly impact on Sexton and Ireland’s preparations.

There is clearly a lot at stake for captain and team alike but while they will have to sweat a little longer before learning their fate, the disciplinary panel appears to be in no mood to rush to conclusions and there is no urgency to do so in terms of fast-approaching games, as would be the case during a more typical, mid-season citing.