YOU OFTEN GET the sense that Johnny Sexton is bemused by the level of attention he commands at the various promotional events he carries out as part of his professional rugby career.
It’s as though the Ireland out-half is a little surprised that there is so much demand to hear his opinion on matters, the wry smile never too far from his face as he negotiates the next question.
Yesterday morning, 10 journalists sat in a room at Aer Lingus’ headquarters in Dublin Airport to hear from the 31-year-old, who is an intriguing, driven character.
All of us know about the training-ground tongue lashings, the heavy demands on his team-mates, the stubborn nature and all the rest of it, but away from the pitch Sexton is an engaging presence and a fine speaker.
With two rounds of the Champions Cup out of the way, the rugby season is suddenly all about the All Blacks.
Mention of Ireland’s close miss in 2013 will always bring back the image of Sexton missing a crucial penalty kick in the the 74th minute, with the scoreline at 22-17 in Ireland’s favour.
If he’d kicked it, Ireland would have won, so goes the thinking in many quarters. Perhaps that is entirely unfair on Sexton, but it’s interesting to hear whether he still thinks about that incident now.
I think about it quite a lot,” says Sexton after a brief pause. “Obviously, it will be fresher in my mind now but I think I learned a hell of a lot from it. Personally, everyone learned something from that game.
“I learned why I missed the kick and the funny thing about it was that I had five kicks to go two scores clear from that exact spot [in other games]; that was bizarre. I got them to go two scores clear the rest of the time.
“Now I wish I could go back and take that one, but you can’t. I learned from it and I think I became a better kicker for it. But I would still love to go back and be able to take it again.”
Sexton was carrying a hamstring strain as he approached that kick, and was replaced inside the subsequent 90 seconds of the game, but he doesn’t revert to that as an excuse.
So what did he learn? Sexton won’t go into the finest detail of his kicking technique, but says it was an important lesson.
“It was only one small… like, when I kicked the ball I thought it was going over. It was a great strike but it was just a small little block and why I blocked it out there.
“That’s really what I learned. I talked about it with different guys and it was one tiny little thing that I did.”
He took confidence from those five successful place kicks from almost exactly the same position on the pitch in the months and seasons that followed.
A game-winning kick for Racing, a penalty to send Ireland two scores clear against France in the final game of the 2014 Six Nations success, so on. He nailed all five of them.
“It was just bizarre how it worked out, except I got them those times,” says Sexton with that smile. “Like I said, it’s just regret really about what would have happened if the kick had gone over [against New Zealand in 2013].
“They could have scored two tries and it wouldn’t have mattered but obviously that hurt missing it; it would have been another step towards beating them.
“We looked at it after the kick went over as well and the amount of mistakes we made that we could have put right, but I can take the flak or criticism. It’s fine, but hopefully I get another chance at it at some stage.”
How fitting it would be if Sexton did get a late opportunity from the tee against the Kiwis in Chicago, or two weekends later in Dublin, to earn Ireland an historic win.
These fixtures against New Zealand bring Ireland full circle under Joe Schmidt, right back to where the journey began. Only this time, the Irish vehicle is a very different machine.
“I think we learned so much from that last game against the All Blacks,” says Sexton. “It was probably the catalyst for our success after it. Back-to-back Six Nations, winning in Argentina, then the guys going and winning in South Africa.
“I think all of it stems from the lessons that we learned from that Australia match [in November 2013, also a defeat] and the New Zealand game. As hard as it was to take, I think I learned a lot from it personally.
“A lot of the guys did and I think the management did as well. It’s a big part of our story.”
What were the lessons?
“The way we closed the [New Zealand] game out,” replies Sexton. “I remember vividly watching it in the first camp we had after. We watched it from the missed kick all the way until they scored the try. Every minute of it.
“We walked it through. It was tough to take, but we were in the position the following year.”
Against Australia in November 2014, Sexton slotted a 64th-minute penalty to give Ireland a 26-23 lead they held out until the final whistle. No heartbreak this time.
“Almost exactly a year to the day, except I got the kick and we managed to hold them out at the very end,” says Sexton.
The Leinster man believes Ireland are now a more mentally resilient side than the one that lost to the All Blacks in 2013, with Enda McNulty continuing to work closely with the squad as they refocus after good performances and remind themselves of their quality after poor ones.
The realisation that Ireland’s bench players had to make more impact and that the players “probably weren’t fit enough” for that level of intensity were important too, and ultimately altered how they prepare under Schmidt.
“We train for that more than we did back then,” said Sexton. “Joe had only been in the job a couple of weeks at that stage.
Now we’re well used to his methods and we train almost faster than we play in many ways. It’s more intense but for shorter periods of time.
“Everything is built towards those high-intensity periods where he tries to fatigue us in training and put us in those situations again. Like I said, it probably all stems back to that one game.”
So we come full circle to the All Blacks. It is time to finally break the losing habit.
“They’re obviously the best team in the world and they’re being talked about as the best team ever. Now, we’ve got to go and try stop the winning run.”
Johnny Sexton was at Dublin Airport today encouraging Ireland fans to bring #HomeAdvantage to Soldier Field in Chicago when Ireland take on the All Blacks on November 5th. Chicago is one of ten North American destinations that you can fly to direct from Ireland with Aer Lingus.
