THIS IS A STORY about when Jonathan Sexton became Johnny Sexton, the face corporate brands would pay big money for, the player who has shouldered Irish hopes for a decade or more, the one who on Saturday became the greatest rugby player this nation has produced.
It begins on a wet day in 2007.
Brian O’Driscoll had repeatedly stood up in the dressing room and told his Leinster team mates that unless they started to call him out on mistakes then they would never progress from contenders to champions. Everyone listened and nodded their heads. But nothing changed.
Then one day this kid from the academy was asked to train with the first team. O’Driscoll threw the kid a sloppy pass. The kid screamed at him. “There was silence,” Bernard Jackman, once of Leinster and Ireland, recalls. “It was a case of, ‘did that just happen?’ Next thing, Brian says, ‘yeah, you’re right. My bad’.”
That day 17 years ago, O’Driscoll passed a ball to Sexton; on Saturday in Dunedin he handed him a baton to carry. No longer is BOD the best player Irish rugby has produced. Now it’s Sexton.
Not everyone will agree.
They’ll find a highlights reel and will show clips of dancing feet, boy-next door smiles versus Roy Keane-like snarls and a laboured running style. O’Driscoll went on four Lions tours, Sexton two. O’Driscoll broke the mould, scored that hat-trick in Paris, the game that turned Irish rugby around.
And he did plenty more besides. European Champions Cups? He won three. But Sexton won four.
Six Nations titles? He won two, including a grand slam. Sexton went one better and won three.
Success with the Lions? O’Driscoll was on that 2013 tour to Australia … but was in the stands for the final Test; Sexton scored a try to help Warren Gatland’s side clinch it and then, four years later, came into the side for the second and third tests and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 1-1 series draw.
That was New Zealand, back where he is now.
And this is the clincher. O’Driscoll played the All Blacks 13 times. O’Driscoll lost to the All Blacks 13 times.
Under Sexton’s guidance, Ireland have won four of their last seven meetings with New Zealand.
His is an Irish kind of tale. Try and make the best of yourself. Fight for your dreams. Don’t give up. Given the ruggedness of his play and his character, he hasn’t fought his way into the nation’s hearts in the way other sports stars have, such as Katie Taylor, Shane Lowry … Brian O’Driscoll.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t the best.
It reminds you of the old Pele/Maradona debate. Both were great but one could beat a team by himself, the other was less flamboyant but marginally more effective.
It’s visible right through Sexton’s CV.
There was the stunning drop goal in his first Heineken Cup final; there was the 28-point haul in his second. He impressed in his third win, not so much in his fourth, but still walked away with a winner’s medal.
With Ireland Paris was a favoured haunt, the city he scored two tries in to clinch the 2014 Six Nations, where he returned four years later to score a winning drop goal after 41 phases of play.
We could go on. Against Wales in 2018, he was immense; on that summer’s tour of Australia, he irked the locals so much they christened him a Bond villain.
But Ireland still won and wouldn’t have done so without him just like they wouldn’t have beaten New Zealand in 2016, 2018 or 2021. And that’s before we talk about Saturday.
Before we get to the good stuff, let’s reflect on the mistake. He made just one in the game – seeking to get as much out of a kick to touch as possible. The ball fell short.
One mistake.
That was all.
Everything else was a masterclass, the disguised pass to Tadhg Beirne on two minutes that released the lock on halfway and set up the move that led to Ireland’s opening try. It is easy to overlook that he had five further involvements in that move, his short simple passes a sacrifice of his ego, his longer, whipped delivery to Mack Hansen buying Ireland an extra couple of yards.
Again, it was Sexton who wrong-footed the All Blacks by faking to go wide when he instead stayed narrow, sending Andrew Porter clear. A similar scenario would play out in the second half, the key pass this time provided by Sexton to Bundee Aki before he got his symbol out and conducted the orchestra from inside the All Blacks 22.
There were moments of bravery: a tackle on Codie Taylor; another on Quinn Tupaea; his appearance at the bottom of a ruck after Mack Hansen had been barged into the advertising boards; his dive on a loose ball after Ireland had lost control of it.
Jack Kyle retired without ever needing his shorts washed; but Sexton can’t ever be accused of shirking his defensive duties.
Today he turns 37.
Only six players have scored 1000 points in test rugby. Sexton is one kick away from making that seven. Over 100 caps, three Six Nations, four wins over New Zealand, four Heineken Cups, at some point medals have to mean more than views on a YouTube video.
“Thirty seven! Wow,” said Ciaran Frawley, his understudy with Leinster and Ireland.
“It is unreal because as he gets older he gets better. He is not looking like a guy who is ready to step away from the game at all. He has a presence that everyone feels; that the nation feels and the whole world can feel when he is on the pitch.
“So, if he can keep bringing that then why would he walk away from it? I thought he was absolutely brilliant on Saturday. For any young 10 coming up, watching him, we are just blessed.”
What makes him great, Frawley gets asked.
“It is his mindset, his drive, his passion, his love for the game; he has been world player of the year for a reason and he is obviously talented; he ticks all the boxes really. It is incredible he keeps going. I don’t know where I will be at 37. He’s amazing.”
The best we’ve had.
Norman Whiteside wasn’t 17 in 1985, unless he played in the 82 world cup when he was 14!
Cheers Graham,
I obviously got Norman Whiteside and Freddy Adu mixed up!
That 1970 match description is class.. “neutralised”
Your a gas man, Will
Wouldn’t consider that tackle to be a straight red nowadays, probably borderline. Back then….not even close, yellow at worst
Miss timed is all it was.I remember watching that game and being shocked when he was sent off.Disagree that it was on any way cynical, there isn’t a cynical bone in Kevin Moran’s body.
Yeah, definitely mis-timed. I blame Reid for having legs!
How times have changed…. You did not see Everton players swarm the ref demanding a red, Man U players were in shock….. Rightly so too, you saw these tackles every week and you got on with it…. Its a sending off and a media circus today, but back then it was, ummm football….. Tackles are expected, and was rarely ever cynical…….
Spot on Graham, sure even Peter Reid protested to the ref on behalf on Moran…..very rare you will see that nowadays.
Peter Reid actually begged the referee not to send Moran off. Frank Stapleton reverted to emergency centre half and had a stormer. Peter Willis was the referee and it was his last ever match to officiate. He was looking to make a name for himself. Years later the F.A. Stopped referees officiating in their last ever match in the cup finals.
‘With United down to 10, Everton took them to extra-time’, shouldn’t that be United took Everton to extra-time as the Toffees were just crowned league champions you know.
Also had more league titles than United! And had just won the cup winners cup beforehand!
Moran’s wasn’t allowed receive a winners medal that day either .
Forget the tackle. He’d get 6 months now for pulling & dragging out of the ref in protesting his innocence! Although he didn’t quite get to Di Canio levels…
Unusually it was an intercept of Paul McGraths pass that led to Kevin having to make the lunge.
Suberb tackle won the ball cleanly. Football is being destroyed these days by cheating, diving and every second tackle being either a yellow or red. Games these days are often decided by which team has a player sent off its a complete joke
Lol, everyone had common sense comments today till that…. Thought we might have a good thread…..
Badly timed don’t think tackles back then were cynical or malicious as they are today .
A proper challenge that! :D
Big Ron would have referred to the tackle as a ‘reducer’
This may be an urban myth and I am well open to correction but is it true that the first person to be sent off in the FA Cup final (Kevin Moran) and the first player to be sent off in the Premier League (Niall Quinn) both went to the same school (Drimnagh castle)??
If memory serves me, I was seven at the time, kevin Moran didnt get a winners medal on the day after his red card. He only received it after a campaign on his behalf.
Bit misleading. Why would you be considered the most cynical player in FA Cup Final history just because you were the first to be sent off in one? Moran was a tough ‘no prisoners’ player, but he was never cynical in his playing days.
If it was today Reid would be gone for simulation…
Most cynical ever? The writer obviously doesn’t remember Willie Young in 1980! Only a yellow too. I think that was the tackle that prompted the introduction of the straight red for a professional foul.
Good article Will, still very few being sent off in big games- Lehmens in 06 CL final, Reyes in 05 FA cup final-can’t think of any others. A few in World cup finals- two Argentinians in 1990, Desailly, Heitinga