Sexton using previous World Cup experience and not looking past Romania
ONE GAME AT A TIME: Johnny Sexton will use his three previous RWC experiences to help his side in the upcoming tournament. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Other than the elusive experience of a World Cup quarter-final victory, there is not much that Johnny Sexton has not seen or done in his previous three tournament appearances, certainly enough to understand that it is sometimes only the fine margins that represent the difference between success and failure.
That was certainly the case, as far as the 38-year old Ireland captain is concerned, four years ago in Tokyo when he was part of a side that appeared to implode in its last-eight showdown with New Zealand, bringing the Joe Schmidt era to a crushing halt in a 46-14 defeat to a vengeful, rampant All Blacks side.
It is just one of the lessons learned as Sexton readies himself for the kick-off to his fourth and final World Cup, leading his country in his first game back since March when Ireland play Romania in their Pool B opener ay Stade de Bordeaux tomorrow afternoon.
A groin injury sustained against England on March 18, the day Ireland secured the Grand Slam, brought a premature end to his Leinster career, while his behaviour towards match officials at the end of his province’s Champions Cup final defeat to La Rochelle could have cost him his Test Rugby swansong here in France. Yet the three-game suspension imposed on the still injured fly-half only cost Sexton his participation in Ireland’s three pre-tournament Tests and having regained full fitness out of harm’s way over the summer, Sexton is ready to resume his captaincy in the number 10 jersey, armed with a career-load of experience.
“Wow, there’s a lot that we learned from that 2019 World Cup,” he said yesterday. “A lot of it is all in hindsight. At the time we probably backed what we were doing. We were bullish about it but it’s always when you come off the back of bad results that you pick everything apart. Maybe we picked it apart too much.
“Personally, it was fine margins, really. Even if you go back to that New Zealand game – the opportunities that we had that we didn’t take that resulted in them scoring tries. Going for the corner, missing touch – great bit of play by them.
“It’s just very small details where the game can get away from you and that’s the thing we’ve probably prepared for the last four years – to be able to take those big moments and react if they don’t go our way.”
Experience has also taught Sexton not to look beyond tomorrow’s opening challenge, let alone talk about Ireland’s prospects of breaking their glass ceiling and reaching a first World Cup semi-final in 10 attempts.
“We haven’t looked past this game to be honest. We do know what’s ahead in terms of the group that we’re in is incredible, so it’s all about getting out of our pool for the moment.
“If we can do that, we will worry about the quarter-final if we get there.”
For now, tomorrow’s meeting with Romania is quite enough to process. Sexton will be reunited with regular starting scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park in a backline also featuring Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose in the centres, wings Keith Earls and James Lowe and full-back Hugo Keenan. On the eve of his 114th Ireland Test appearance Sexton admitted to a mixture of nerves and excitement ahead of his 13th World Cup game “Very much so. Like it probably is for every player. The excitement of getting into an amazing stadium, I'm sure the Irish will travel like they always do and it's a very different atmosphere to what you normally get at rugby matches. It's very much like a soccer World Cup atmosphere, the ones I've been involved in to date, and we're looking forward to that. But also with that comes a bit of nerves. We've built to this moment for the last four years so now it's finally here the nerves come in but it's about embracing them and going out and trying to play our best.”
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