Sexton happy with record breaking return 

RECORDS BROKEN: Johnny Sexton broke a number of Irish records on his return today. 

Johnny Sexton had already turned his focus towards facing Tonga next week by the time he and head coach Andy Farrell arrived for Ireland’s post-match media conference following their 82-8 victory over Romania.

Ireland’s Pool B is well and truly up and running after a record-breaking 12-try rout in which the 38-year-old fly-half also chalked up a couple of his country’s World Cup records and edged closer to another significant milestone.

Sexton equalled David Humphries’ 24 points against Argentina in 1999 with two tries and seven conversions against Romania to tie the Irish record for most points in a single World Cup match while also surpassing John Hayes as Ireland’s oldest player in the tournament.

His tally contributed to Ireland’s biggest victory and largest winning margin at a World Cup, bettering the 64-7 pool win over Namibia in 2003 also moved him to within nine points of Ronan O’Gara’s 1083 points as his country’s leading scorer in the tournament.

And all in his first game since the March 19 Grand Slam victory over England. Sexton sustained a groin injury in that game, prematurely ending his Leinster career in the process having decided to retire after the World Cup and having watched his province’s Champions Cup final defeat to La Rochelle from the sidelines in May, his suspension for post-match comments made on the field towards the match officials caused him to miss all three of Ireland’s warm-up Test matches.

Sexton referred to that three-match ban as reflected on completing 65 minutes against the Romanians at his fourth and final World Cup.

“Yeah, six months thinking about it,” he said. “Obviously part of that was self-inflicted with my mistake but once the plan was clear to me, Andy said, ‘look, you’ve just got to target that first game’ and to train hard, to do a bit of a prep work for this game in particular.

“But hopefully I’m the better for it and I can improve my performance for Tonga. It’s going to be a much more difficult game, they’re obviously a different calibre of player.

“No disrespect to Romania, I thought they fronted up brilliantly and they were very physical but you know you see the team that Tonga have and we know their threat, they’ve had this weekend off and they’ll be just prepped for our game.

“They’ll have had two or three weeks to focus on our game, they’ve said that publicly. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us and we’re going to have to be ready, it’s a World Cup, it’s week on week and we’ve got to be ready every week.” 

Farrell, sitting next Sexton, was asked for his verdict on the captain’s performance and his hopes of facing the Tongans in Nantes next Saturday.

“I mean, I heard he broke a few records today. What was the record Johnny? The oldest (Irish) player to play at the tournament, that’s the first one.

“And what was the other one, points scored? Points equalled, 24 points, puts him eight points behind the record for the most points scored for any Irish player. So you would think if selected that he’d be able to get that record.

“But the most pleasing point for us was definitely 60-odd minutes under the belt and firing on all cylinders and fit and healthy and ready to go for the rest of the competition.” 

Sexton referenced the intense heat.

“I think amongst the group we were talking about it after. We'll never use it as an excuse because it's the same for both teams but they were incredibly tough.

“Even the warm-up I was talking to the lads and they just felt like they were burning. Thankfully we had a couple of water-breaks and half time to regroup. I thought we got better as the game went on, which was the most pleasing thing from a fitness point of view. The second half we found our flow a bit better, so it's pleasing on that front.

“Yeah, obviously delighted to be back, I didn't expect conditions to be like that it was incredibly hot, in the warm-up in particular.

“Delighted to get through some minutes, we got through some good stuff, but there's lots to improve on, both individually and as a team, and we know the challenge next week is going to be up a couple of levels. We're very, very happy with five points, and a good points difference as well, which could matter at the end of the pool.”