THIS IS A STORY about when Jonathan Sexton became Johnny Sexton, the face corporate brands would pay big money for, the player who has shouldered Irish hopes for a decade or more, the one who on Saturday became the greatest rugby player this nation has produced.
It begins on a wet day in 2007.
Brian O’Driscoll had repeatedly stood up in the dressing room and told his Leinster team mates that unless they started to call him out on mistakes then they would never progress from contenders to champions. Everyone listened and nodded their heads. But nothing changed.
Then one day this kid from the academy was asked to train with the first team. O’Driscoll threw the kid a sloppy pass. The kid screamed at him. “There was silence,” Bernard Jackman, once of Leinster and Ireland, recalls. “It was a case of, ‘did that just happen?’ Next thing, Brian says, ‘yeah, you’re right. My bad’.”
That day 17 years ago, O’Driscoll passed a ball to Sexton; on Saturday in Dunedin he handed him a baton to carry. No longer is BOD the best player Irish rugby has produced. Now it’s Sexton.
Not everyone will agree.
They’ll find a highlights reel and will show clips of dancing feet, boy-next door smiles versus Roy Keane-like snarls and a laboured running style. O’Driscoll went on four Lions tours, Sexton two. O’Driscoll broke the mould, scored that hat-trick in Paris, the game that turned Irish rugby around.
And he did plenty more besides. European Champions Cups? He won three. But Sexton won four.
Six Nations titles? He won two, including a grand slam. Sexton went one better and won three.
Success with the Lions? O’Driscoll was on that 2013 tour to Australia … but was in the stands for the final Test; Sexton scored a try to help Warren Gatland’s side clinch it and then, four years later, came into the side for the second and third tests and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 1-1 series draw.
That was New Zealand, back where he is now.
And this is the clincher. O’Driscoll played the All Blacks 13 times. O’Driscoll lost to the All Blacks 13 times.
Under Sexton’s guidance, Ireland have won four of their last seven meetings with New Zealand.
His is an Irish kind of tale. Try and make the best of yourself. Fight for your dreams. Don’t give up. Given the ruggedness of his play and his character, he hasn’t fought his way into the nation’s hearts in the way other sports stars have, such as Katie Taylor, Shane Lowry … Brian O’Driscoll.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t the best.
It reminds you of the old Pele/Maradona debate. Both were great but one could beat a team by himself, the other was less flamboyant but marginally more effective.
It’s visible right through Sexton’s CV.
There was the stunning drop goal in his first Heineken Cup final; there was the 28-point haul in his second. He impressed in his third win, not so much in his fourth, but still walked away with a winner’s medal.
With Ireland Paris was a favoured haunt, the city he scored two tries in to clinch the 2014 Six Nations, where he returned four years later to score a winning drop goal after 41 phases of play.
We could go on. Against Wales in 2018, he was immense; on that summer’s tour of Australia, he irked the locals so much they christened him a Bond villain.
But Ireland still won and wouldn’t have done so without him just like they wouldn’t have beaten New Zealand in 2016, 2018 or 2021. And that’s before we talk about Saturday.
Before we get to the good stuff, let’s reflect on the mistake. He made just one in the game – seeking to get as much out of a kick to touch as possible. The ball fell short.
One mistake.
That was all.
Everything else was a masterclass, the disguised pass to Tadhg Beirne on two minutes that released the lock on halfway and set up the move that led to Ireland’s opening try. It is easy to overlook that he had five further involvements in that move, his short simple passes a sacrifice of his ego, his longer, whipped delivery to Mack Hansen buying Ireland an extra couple of yards.
Again, it was Sexton who wrong-footed the All Blacks by faking to go wide when he instead stayed narrow, sending Andrew Porter clear. A similar scenario would play out in the second half, the key pass this time provided by Sexton to Bundee Aki before he got his symbol out and conducted the orchestra from inside the All Blacks 22.
There were moments of bravery: a tackle on Codie Taylor; another on Quinn Tupaea; his appearance at the bottom of a ruck after Mack Hansen had been barged into the advertising boards; his dive on a loose ball after Ireland had lost control of it.
Jack Kyle retired without ever needing his shorts washed; but Sexton can’t ever be accused of shirking his defensive duties.
Today he turns 37.
Only six players have scored 1000 points in test rugby. Sexton is one kick away from making that seven. Over 100 caps, three Six Nations, four wins over New Zealand, four Heineken Cups, at some point medals have to mean more than views on a YouTube video.
“Thirty seven! Wow,” said Ciaran Frawley, his understudy with Leinster and Ireland.
“It is unreal because as he gets older he gets better. He is not looking like a guy who is ready to step away from the game at all. He has a presence that everyone feels; that the nation feels and the whole world can feel when he is on the pitch.
“So, if he can keep bringing that then why would he walk away from it? I thought he was absolutely brilliant on Saturday. For any young 10 coming up, watching him, we are just blessed.”
What makes him great, Frawley gets asked.
“It is his mindset, his drive, his passion, his love for the game; he has been world player of the year for a reason and he is obviously talented; he ticks all the boxes really. It is incredible he keeps going. I don’t know where I will be at 37. He’s amazing.”
The best we’ve had.