THE BIT OF FRENCH that Johnny Sexton picked up during his two years in Paris with Racing Métro came in handy today.
The Ireland captain was interviewed en français in the middle of the pitch at Stade de la Vallée in Tours as a huge crowd of 12,000 people turned up to welcome the visitors to their new World Cup base.
Before Sexton took to the mic, a video of French footballer Olivier Giroud played in the stadium, with the former Arsenal and Chelsea striker telling everyone how good this Irish rugby team is. He’s one of a fair few new supporters.
Sexton told the people of Tours how happy Ireland are to be here and thanked them for making them feel at home. He also picked out the catchy ‘Les Champs-Elysées’ as his favourite French song and it duly blasted out over the speakers, sparking a singalong from nearly everyone in the stadium, including some of the Irish players.
The Irish squad were impressed by the reception and even 38-year-old Sexton, with all his experience in the game, was taken aback.
“It was incredible,” said Sexton after coming in off the pitch. “Since we arrived in Tours, it has been unbelievable how they’ve set up the hotel, how they’ve looked after us. We’re very happy to be here.
“The people of Tours and our management have put an incredible amount of work into getting the training facilities to be really, really top-class, which they are and which is most important. The hotel being good with good food, etc., everything has been done for us.
“When you turn up to something like this, it really hits home how big a deal it is. Not that it was lost on us before but it really hits home on days like this.”
Sexton added that Ireland have “no excuses now.”
It was a key point with their opener against Romania now just a week away. Ireland trained in Tours today and will revert into a more familiar Test week from Monday as they prepare to make a strong start to Pool B. They’ll travel to Bordeaux for the game on Thursday.
Of course, Sexton is back available after his three-game ban meant he missed the warm-up games.
It remains to be seen what part he plays against the Romanians. His last game was back in March in the Six Nations against England, when he suffered a groin injury that ended his season. Happily, he fully recovered from that issue in pre-season and has put down a strong couple of months of training.
Sexton is now understandably raring to go.
“It’s good just to be back available for selection, and we’ll see how the next few days go,” said Sexton.
“Hopefully I can get in some match minutes but we’ll see. We know it’s obviously a tough pool and I want to get some games in, but it’s what’s right for the team as well. I’m just looking forward to it now.”