WARREN GATLAND LAID down a challenge to Johnny Sexton in December, and then again in February.
Show me you’re durable enough to be my first-choice Lions out-half in New Zealand.
The first time the Lions boss laid down the gauntlet, things didn’t go so well for Sexton as a calf injury followed a hamstring issue, meaning he missed the start of the Six Nations.
Sexton did manage to rid himself of that calf problem, however, and finished the championship strongly, underlining his enduring class and demonstrating that he remains the most accomplished out-half available to Gatland this summer.
That said, Sexton has been carrying a shoulder issue more recently, although through no fault of his own. The batterings he takes in order to play close to the gainline and free his team-mates are alarming and leave their toll.
It would be highly encouraging for Gatland to see Sexton play for Leinster this weekend against Connacht and then back that up with another big display against Clermont in the Champions Cup semi-final.
From his own point of view, Sexton feels he has shown he can be durable.
I think over the course of my career, I’ve been very lucky with injuries,” says the 31-year-old, speaking at the launch of Rugby Players Ireland – formerly known as IRUPA. ”I’ve never had – touch wood – the sort of nine month or a year out.
“Over the last year or two, I’ve picked up these small little muscle twinges that really frustrated me, when you have to come off pitch.
“That can be prevented and I spent six weeks out in Santry working with the best guys in making sure that they didn’t happen again. Then I stupidly got a dead calf and played with a dead calf against Castres because I felt I needed to prove that I was durable and because I needed game time.
“I paid the price for that and missed the start of the Six Nations, but I feel that my body is in a really good place. I played three unbelievably tough games in four weeks in the Six Nations and then obviously playing Wasps [in the Champions Cup quarter-final] as well, I was really happy with that.
“There are areas I can improve on and it’s going to get harder now for the rest of the season.
“Connacht, Clermont, the run-in in the Pro12, hopefully a European final, hopefully Guinness Pro12 knock-out rugby and then some type of tour in the summer – touch wood – so it’s only going to get tougher, but that’s the challenge and I’m loving it.”
Sexton believes the niggly muscular issues that have frustrated him in the last two years are now behind him, having gone through the aforementioned six-week stint in Santry Sports Clinic activating important muscle groups and working on his movement and posture.
It’s difficult not to link those muscular problems back to Sexton’s two-year stint with Racing 92, when his body was placed under far greater demands than it would have been if he had opted to stay at home under the IRFU’s player welfare programme.
Looking back, Sexton can see that he paid the price for his time in France, and with Ian Madigan having indicated that he sustained a groin injury due to the difference in training methods in Bordeaux this season, these are words of warning for others.
“When you go over there as a foreign player, you’re going in as marquee players and they want to get their money’s worth,” says Sexton. “I suppose you don’t help yourself sometimes.
“I went over there after a Lions tour [in 2013], I had two weeks off, got married, had a week’s honeymoon and then played a warm-up game at the start of August. The last Lions Test was the start of July and so I didn’t really have a break.
“I think I played 14 games in 13 weeks. I was little bit unlucky then too because Jonathan Wisniewski was the other out-half and he was injured. Juan Martin Hernandez was at the Rugby Championship, then he came back and got injured.
“I was the only out-half that was fit for that time and I probably paid for it after that. Probably not that season, but maybe the season after where you don’t have another pre-season.
“It is tough and it’s only then when you see how unbelievably well we are looked after here by the IRFU and Rugby Players Ireland now, how good a job they do making sure that the players are at the forefront of player welfare.”
Sexton is confident that he can deal with the rigours that remain this season and beyond. Many have called for the Leinster man to take the kind of six-month sabbatical from rugby that New Zealand’s Dan Carter and Richie McCaw enjoyed in the latter years of their Test careers, but Sexton dismisses the notion.
“I thought I took a sabbatical already – six weeks in Santry!
“No, I don’t think I need it. The fact is I started the season late because of dislocating my shoulder at the end of last season, in the Pro12 final, so my season started late. I missed seven games off the bat.
“I came back, was playing well, and probably neglected some areas that I needed to work on in the summer. I picked up a small little strain. I picked up a strain of a similar nature and then I took a break. And I did every single session.
“The perception of me as struggling through… I did every single session from the start of the summer, all the way through. I picked up a couple of niggles and I just said, ‘Look, I can’t do this, in terms of picking up a niggle and having a week off… I need to get it sorted.’
“Well, I didn’t say that. Someone else said it to me – that you need to get your body in a better place. I did that for the six weeks and I felt great and besides that one issue – with the contact injury with the calf – I’ve been pretty good. I don’t want to jinx it now!
“So those are the facts but it can be portrayed… if I get injured and it’s not reported when I’ll be back, then the week after it’s like, ‘Oh, he’s still not back’ and the week after it’s, ‘He’s still not back, he’s still not back’.
“It seems like every time that you’re in the headlines for being injured.
“Sometimes you are better off where, if you pick up an injury you are not seen for nine months and then you’re back, suddenly that injury doesn’t exist. It’s a tough one to deal with but the facts and how it’s portrayed can be slightly different.”
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