In more ways than one, both before and subsequently, it’s worked out for the best that Johnny Sexton’s 100th cap came last week.
Not only was there a huge crowd there to witness his landmark day as opposed to an empty stadium, but it's assuredly for the best that it's now done and dusted. Preparing for a Test against New Zealand is enough to contend with in one week.
“Yeah definitely, it was a bit draining last week,” admitted the man himself yesterday.
“It was an emotional week from the jersey presentation to all the messages coming in from different people. Not that it takes its toll, you wouldn’t want it any other way, but by the time it came to Saturday morning, it was: ‘I’ve got a game to play now, I’ve to switch in!’.
“Look, there were parts of my game I was very happy with, there were parts I need to improve on this week, but yeah I’m glad, not that it’s over because it was a special day for me and my family and those around me, all those close to me, I wouldn’t change it. But I’m glad it’s back to business this week.”
Be it with Ireland or the Lions, Sexton has plenty of history in 13 meetings with New Zealand, beginning with six defeats. The first was as a replacement in the 66-28 loss in New Plymouth in June 2010 when the die was cast by a red card for Jamie Heaslip and a yellow card for Ronan O'Gara in the first 24 minutes. Sexton came on ten minutes from time with the score 59-21. There are lost causes and, well, there are lost causes.
His first start was the following November, a 38-16 defeat in the refurbished Aviva.
“I was blown away by the speed of the game, the physicality,” Sexton said yesterday. “But I think that’s international rugby, there is a big difference. They epitomise that. It’s sort of not letting that shock you, being prepared for it. We trained well today, we trained at a high speed with a view to what it’s going to be like on Saturday. That’s the thing you have to be prepared for.”
There was a near miss in Christchurch in 2012, followed a week later by the 60-0 Hamilton Horrow Show, and then the nearest miss of all at the Aviva in 2013, when Ireland led 19-0 and 22-7; a particularly haunting day for Sexton.
“We missed a shot at goal that would have put us two scores clear with probably eight minutes left. They held the ball for four minutes and scored and got two chances at the conversion. That was a huge scar.
"That was something that took us a long time to get over, took me a long time to get over, but again, once you learn from it and bounce back from it. We had the big win in Chicago and then we backed that up at home when we beat them.
“Nothing ever comes easy against them but that’s what happens when you’re against the best in the world. You’ve got to go and work for it.”
Very special
The fifth anniversary of Soldier’s Field was five days ago when, lest we forget, Ireland went into that meeting weighed down by the historical baggage of one draw in 28 meetings dating back 108 years.
“Yeah, it was a little bit of the monkey off the back stuff. Getting over that hurdle at last was huge and it was something that we were desperate for. It’s always very special to be the first team to do something, like Grand Slams. You always want to put your name in the history books and that was our chance to do something that no team had done before, no Irish team, and we did it and it was amazing.
“Then to back it up two years later, because not any team can do a one-off but you wanted to show that it wasn’t a fluke. Perhaps we were brought back down to earth in our last game against them so we’ve got to respond,” he admitted of the World Cup quarter-final defeat last time out.
Amid all the praise being heaped upon this Irish team for the brand of rugby used last Saturday, one senses a little exasperation in Sexton that it’s been interpreted as akin to a brand new dawn.
He listed the myriad of factors at work, be it slow ball, the conditions, the opposition defence. He cited Andy Farrell’s first two games in charge when Ireland beat Scotland and Wales, “where we had some great attacking things”, then coming unstuck against England “because we tried to do the same thing against a different type of defence”.
“The next step for us is to pick and choose when to do it,” he added, last Saturday being a case in point. “But it’s always been there.
“We played some fantastic rugby under Joe [Schmidt] well. Joe always gave us licence to go out and play but he also knew that we had some players in the backline that could dominate in the air and so at times we went to that.
“At one stage we had five Gaelic footballers in our backline and we used to go to the air because they were unbelievable at it and it was clever coaching. So it’s a little bit of everything there.”
