Johnny Sexton’s mind as much as his body will get him to the next rugby World Cup in Paris at 38 years old. Sexton may not be getting younger, but there is a Benjamin Button aspect to the Ireland outhalf as his rugby powers continually refuse to depreciate. But maybe it’s time to stop being ageist about it.
Truthfully, elite sport is too hard-assed to pause for sensitivities. Nor is it always healthy or well adjusted or even fair. If sport is not ageist it is body shaming, and if it’s not body shaming it’s cheating, and if it’s not cheating it’s homophobic, and if it’s not liking gays it’s not liking women or it’s not liking Muslim players.
High-end sport is great for many things but also a cracking place for eccentrics and the maladjusted.
Part of it is a backhanded kind of flattery, recognition that at 36 years Sexton can still command respect, captain his country and play international rugby
This week Tom Brady made it official. He was retiring at 44 years old, bringing to an end a 22-year career as a quarterback following a sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL draft after 198 players were chosen before him.
Brady like Sexton has experienced the most acceptable and happy-go-lucky of the “isms”. It’s an everyday thing: the jokes, the fleck of grey, the threat of “he’s past it” at any hint of a poor game.
As recently as the Six Nations Championship launch the gleeful pointing out that the Ireland captain had attended matches in Lansdowne Road before the Italian captain Michele Lamaro was even born seemed typically harmless.
Part of it is a backhanded kind of flattery, recognition that at 36 years he can still command respect, captain his country and play international rugby. It is acknowledgement of his durability and daily drive to hold standards.
Pitch time
Sexton has had advantages. There is a large and competent squad at Leinster that allows for limited pitch time and player welfare considerations.
There have been changes in the rules that makes it illegal to tackle high or tackle late, and concussion protocols that sit players out. All have added another layer of protection. The rules of rugby have never been so far tilted towards safeguarding players.
There is also a defiant quality to Sexton’s personality and even now, counter-intuitively, he looks for physical contact. But once the body remains intact it is Sexton’s mind that will get him to France.
Like Chris Horner who won the 2013 edition of the Vuelta a Espana just short of his 42nd birthday, or American swimmer Dara Torres who won a Beijing silver medal in 2008 in the 50m freestyle at 41, or Ronaldo at 37-years-old tomorrow, the number becomes less a hindrance and more a motivational tool.
Sure, as athletes leave their 30s cells degrade, flexibility declines, more limitations are placed on muscles, the oxygen-delivery system goes down and even eyesight diminishes.
It is Sexton's smarts and experience in combination with the position he plays that makes him more respected than a receptacle for age quips
Some of it has been offset by modern training and restorative practices. Active recovery, yoga, nutrition, sleeping habits, quality over quantity, it all helps.
In the 2015-16 season Sexton played 24 games of rugby for Leinster and Ireland. In 2017-18 it was 22 matches and a season later it was 19 games. In the 2019-20 season he turned out 17 times and last season he played 12 matches.
So far for the 2021-22 season he has played seven times – two Champions Cup, two Autumn internationals and three URC league games.
But it is Sexton’s smarts and experience in combination with the position he plays that makes him more respected than a receptacle for age quips. Performance maintenance is not just about physical changes.
Heavy hits
As players age the intrinsic motivation to train and take heavy hits also decline. Brady countered that by being obsessional about work habits that among many things lengthened his muscles. He was disciplined, meticulous and didn’t have an off season or an on season. He had a lifestyle.
Sexton has an abundance of those traits and is able to continuously motivate himself to try and play at a level he may never attain. He rarely expresses total fulfilment and he never appears complacent as he, sometimes abrasively, drives himself and his team-mates.
A supportive social group of friends and family have also been shown to be a requirement. But, critically, every day Sexton has to love doing it.
It is not easy being Johnny Sexton. There is no smooth road to do what he hopes to achieve and in some ways it is tortured
In 2012 a study conducted by the American Psychological Association found that altering mindsets could enhance motor learning in older adults. They fabricated feedback and told a group they were above average in a simple balancing task. The group then performed tasks better than a control group that was not given positive feedback. Performance was improved by changing how people thought about themselves.
Sexton has already said he sees no reason why he cannot play in the next World Cup in 2023. He has already torn down those barriers and publicly spoke his mind knowing all eyes will follow that journey.
Darkness
From his diary in his 2013 book Becoming a Lion he gave us a glimpse.
“I agonise over games. Lying in the darkness hours later, I’ll replay large chunks of the action in my head, wince at a poor option taken.”
It is not easy being Johnny Sexton. There is no smooth road to do what he hopes to achieve and in some ways it is tortured. But maybe in years to come he will not be seen as breaking age conventions, rather more of a guiding spirit to what might become the conventional.
