Ireland’s celebrated outhalf has resolved to tick the one relatively empty box among his achievements by breaking Ireland through that quarter-final ceiling
Come the 2019 World Cup, Sexton finally started in his first quarter-final at 34, but a year after their golden 2018, he and Ireland were damaged goods and horribly off-colour whenThe inner drive to atone for World Cup disappointments is something that Sexton has always had ever since he started playing sport, according to his father Jerry.
In any event, as it was his father’s club, hence Sexton’s rugby journey began with Bective Rangers when he started playing mini rugby with the club before St Mary’s took over. “That changed everything,” according to Sexton senior, and on foot of that his son was invited into the Leinster academy. In the reverse fixture the following Friday, Sexton converted his own try to leave Leinster 12-9 ahead at the end of the first-half, but Michael Cheika hauled him off during the interval and they lost 18-15.
After his introduction for the last half-hour, Leinster scored four of their five tries, so maintaining a trend in which their strike-rate for tries was markedly higher with Sexton at ‘10′, something that was highlighted in The Irish Times. He regrets the sojourn to Racing 92 for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons, but has gone on to endear himself to Leinster and Irish fans with his achievements, all the more so sinceAs Ronan O’Gara put it on the eve of Sexton steering Ireland to another Slam last March: “I think what pleases me the most is probably that he has inner contentment.
As Jamison Gibson-Park once put it: “It’s always the same for me, nothing really changes, he goes about his business he’s probably the most driven I’ve ever seen, especially for someone his age, he just turns up every day. With Johnny the understanding of the game is on another level, a joy to work with really.
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