RUGBY: JOHNNY WATTERSONtalks to the outhalf on how much has changed since he replaced Felipe Contepomi late in the 2009 Heineken campaign
LAST TIME out in 2009, Jonathan Sexton stood in Murrayfield and hoped, not for glorious victory over Leicester, or a Heineken Cup medal, or trashing Edinburgh and then Dublin in celebrations after the match. His ambitions extended to making no calamitous errors, not screwing up. Champion thoughts?
Brought into the Leinster team at the semi-final stage after Felipe Contepomi had spannered his knee, Sexton was the 23-year-old rookie who carried the freight of great promise but little weight of experience or guile for a European final. That they were facing Leicester, proven dogs of war around Europe, drew the image of Sexton the gladiator rising up from the bowels in the lift to the Coliseum, the gates bursting open to be faced by a guy with half an ear and swinging a spiked iron ball at his head.
As if Hollywood had a hand here too, Sexton’s contribution was bookended by insouciantly kicking a spectacular drop goal from the halfway line as well the winning penalty. No mistakes.
This week he remains the same unflappable figure. But in two years he has advanced aeons and is central to Leinster’s cause. Coaches and players now demand from him. They expect him to control tempo, kick territory, bang over the points, lots of points. Sexton’s dynamic with the team has drastically changed.
Whether the match is an endless grind of forwards pulling and jumping on each other or is open and imaginative, the outhalf’s right boot is expected to be golden. He prefers it this way.
“Yeah, Felipe got injured and I played the final,” he explains. “I sort of felt that year it was a case of trying not to let the team down. This year, I suppose it would be more experienced group of players we have and I’ve been a part of that.
“From a personal point of view, last time I was just really thrown in there,” he says. “I’d only really played probably a couple of halves in the pool stages. I was on the bench normally. This year, I’ve played every game, the majority of them. It would mean more to me this year to win it after playing all of the games and feeling more a part of it.”
Few would have noticed but against Ulster he was harbouring an injury. Nothing serious but a couple of days after Leinster played against Toulouse in the quarter-final, he hurt himself in training and was forced to lie low leading into the Ulster semi-final
“I just literally turned up and it felt good on the day so we went for it,” he explains. “I was probably at about 90 per cent. I was nearly there but I didn’t really try to put the foot down. It was my left leg, not the kicking one.”
Comparisons to the team of 2009 could come back to haunt him. While never intemperately outspoken, Sexton holds confident views. This is a better team now than it was two years ago he believes. Back then it defaulted to the abilities of Contepomi and Rocky Elsom, who were asked too often to pull them out of holes. This year the squad work-loads and laurels have been spread more evenly. The players have collectively hauled themselves up.
“We probably didn’t play great two years ago if you look at the performances. I supposed we peaked against Munster and we sort of struggled through the final,” he says analytically and with it stripping the triumph of some of its lustre. It’s also in keeping with all players’ views that a final is no pageant.
“We’ll be going out to play. That’s been our sort of ethos for the whole season, to go out and play our type of game, and attack with the ball.
“We’re not going to change it now just because it’s a final. That would be criminal, I suppose, to go against everything we stand for,” he adds. “That’s what Joe (Schmidt) stands for. A running game.”
And you listen to Sexton and you believe him. A changed Sexton, a different Leinster, the same final.
