JOHNNY SEXTON HAS always come across as a player with strong mental skills, but he says it’s something he hadn’t focused on until the latter stages of his career.
When he was first attempting to break through with Leinster, Sexton had to demonstrate resilience. He wasn’t always destined to be a World Rugby player of the year winner. Let’s not forget that he worked as an office assistant in Friends First for a stint after leaving school and before he started making progress with Leinster.
Sexton stuck at it and became one of the best players ever. But even the best can get better. So it was that in 2018 when his Leinster team-mate Isa Nacewa told him about Gary Keegan, Sexton’s interest was piqued.
Sexton had already worked with Enda McNulty, who was Ireland’s mental skills specialist through to the 2019 World Cup, but Nacewa said he should speak to Keegan.
“This guy is a bit different,” Nacewa told him.
Sexton went and did a few sessions with high-performance expert Keegan and hasn’t looked back since.
Of course, Keegan is working with Ireland these days and is having a significant influence. He has been on the IRFU national professional games board since 2016 but joined Andy Farrell’s national team set-up in 2020.
“He’s been brilliant for the squad,” says Sexton. “He’s been great for a lot of individuals. From a team perspective as well, he’s been great.
“His record speaks for itself. To be involved with the boxing team for so long, which had so much success, with the Gaelic football team in Dublin, had so much success, so he tends to have it wherever he goes, so hopefully he can bring a little bit of it to us as well.”
Sexton credits Ireland boss Farrell for seeking out Keegan’s help, acknowledging that the area of mental skills was something his squad needed to work on after the 2019 World Cup disappointment.
The Ireland captain also points out that people like Keegan can nearly be the most important in a rugby environment, noting examples in Wales and New Zealand in the recent past. They might not get all the headlines, but their work on mental skills is invaluable.
Everyone playing professional rugby is elite so the tiny differences can often be mental, as Sexton has appreciated more in the later part of his career.
“You can’t focus on it if you don’t know about it,” he says.
Right now, Ireland’s mental challenge is a fascinating one. They’re two wins away from this island’s fourth-ever Grand Slam. Most people expect them to seal the deal by beating Scotland in Edinburgh this Sunday and then triumphing against England the following Saturday.
Sexton’s message to his team is clear.
“It’s about embracing it,” he says. “It’s about realising that it’s not always like this. Going back a couple of years [to 2021], we’d lost our first two games and we were fighting for a bit of respect, a bit of pride, whatever.
“So it’s not always like this. You’ve got to cherish it. Where else would you rather be? Would you rather be fourth and playing for nothing?
“It’s where we want to be. You can’t get away from that so it’s just about driving home process, driving home performance, driving home the things that matter.
“We’ve got to go and play well. That’s the most important thing. The weather [in Edinburgh] could be like it is today, cold and wet. That is something that we haven’t faced yet and we need to be able to show that we can win in those conditions as well.”
This looks almost certain to be Sexton’s last Six Nations campaign before retiring, so there must be a strong sense of needing to get this job done.
He points out that he’s been feeling pressure for his entire career. Pressure to make the grade in Leinster, pressure to usurp Felipe Contepomi and Ronan O’Gara, pressure to find his best form, pressure to return from injuries, pressure to fight for his place.
“Pressure is pressure,” says Sexton. “It’s been there for the last 10, 15 years in various forms.
“This is a good pressure. You’ve one shot, you want to do well. But at the same time, it’s not about me. It’s about the team and building and trying to do something that we set out to do. That’s ultimately what it’s about.
“This is about achieving. This is the pressure that you want and we’ve had it loads of times. I think the good thing about this group is we’ve had big games before that we haven’t won, and we’ve had big games over the last few years where we have won.
“I suppose we know what it takes, and it’s about whether we can go out and deliver on that.”
