Sexton on being a record-breaker: It means more to my son than me

'To us, as a leader, as a player, Johnny's a lot more than a points-scoring machine - it's how he prepares his team and gets them up for every single game

Johnny be good: Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton celebrates after scoring his record-breaking try.

JOHNNY Sexton admitted breaking Ronan O’Gara’s all-time Irish points record on Saturday would mean more to his son than him.

The Ireland captain, set to retire at the end of the World Cup, scored a try, a penalty and four conversions against Tonga as his team retained their world number one status with a 59-16 victory at Stade de la Beaujoire. That 16-point haul took him past O’Gara’s 1083 total completed over 128 caps between 2000 and 2013.

Sexton, 38, passed the milestone in his 115th Ireland appearance, just under 14 years after his 2009 Test debut and the fly-half’s celebrations as he scored the try that took him past O’Gara’s mark suggested it meant an awful lot more than he intimated in his post-match press conference. He even suggested his nine-year-old son Luca would be setting his sights on surpassing his father’s new record.

"I was just happy to score the try. I think one of the lads said it to me under the posts and I actually thought I had got it on the kick before,” Sexton said.

“It's something when you retire and finish, you can look back and be proud. I think my little boy will be over the moon, he was talking about it during the week and it probably means more to him.

“He'll chase it down now! And so will the other 10s. It's there to be broken now and I'm sure some young guys will be eyeing it up. Look, I’m very proud to do it but tonight was about getting the win and moving onto what’s such a massive game now this week.” 

Asked if the former record holder had been in touch to pass on his congratulations, Sexton joked that the two former rivals for the Ireland number 10 jersey had not spoken since a well-publicised half-time row during Leinster’s Champions Cup final defeat to O’Gara’s La Rochelle.

“I haven’t checked my phone yet… I’ve no idea! Ask him. I’m not sure we’re talking to each other after the European Cup final,” Sexton said with a laugh. “No, I’m sure he will.” 

Ireland boss Andy Farrell was on hand to give his perspective of Sexton’s achievement, although he too thought his captain had secured the record with the conversion of Mack Hansen’s try on 33 minutes that preceded his own 38th-minute score.

"I think it was fitting. He had nine points and equalled the record, didn't he, before he scored the try. That's what I was trying to find out with Vinny (Hammond), our analyst, and two minutes later he scored under the posts.

“You just knew when we got held up and we were set to play that play, it was something we practiced during the week. He knows which ones to follow and he followed Conor (Murray) really well. It's so fitting that he broke the record with a try like that.

"But what I would say and I've said to Johnny in front of the lads in there, he can talk for himself, but the record is fantastic. He'd say that's his job but it takes some doing. To us, as a leader, as a player, he's a lot more than a points-scoring machine for Ireland how he prepares his team and gets them up for every single game is more important to him and certainly to us."

Farrell was pleased with Ireland’s performance in an eight-try victory over a Tongan team that represented a significant step up in class from the Romanian side beaten 82-8 in Bordeaux seven days earlier.

Asked if it ticked all the boxes, the head coach replied: "It was a bit more than that. We're not into ticking boxes.

“We would like to see and judge ourselves on how we've prepared for a tough game which it was always going to be against a Tongan side that was raring to go with the quality they've got and the quality coaching staff.

“To get their tournament up and running, it was always going to be a tough challenge for us but I thought we handled the game and the opponent extremely well. Even when things weren't going too well for us, as in errors, I though controlling territory-wise, we controlled the game really well. Once we got a couple of scores up, we flowed nicely and controlled the game throughout."