SEXTON’S DRIVE
Emotion makes him world class, says Contepomi
FELIPE CONTEPOMI has backed Johnny Sexton’s passion, insisting the Leinster captain’s fiery personality made him the best player on the planet.
Leinster’s discipline deserted them during a feisty first half against Munster in Limerick last weekend, with Cian Healy and Tadhg Furlong both doing time in the sin-bin while James Lowe was sent off by referee Frank Murphy.
To compound matters, an agitated Sexton got repeatedly side-tracked by off-the-ball skirmishes, but Leinster assistant coach Contepomi feels there is method to Sexton’s madness.
‘That personality made him the best player in the world as well, so you can take it or leave it, you know, and I’d rather take it,’ he said.
‘It’s something that he has to learn, for me, and try to control and that will make him even better, and maybe the best player next year and the following year.
‘But it’s hard because we’re judging him on results. And if we would have got the right technical detail and won that game, we would have
said: “Oh how good was Johnny, he stood up” or, “What a great leader”. ‘I don’t like judging on results, I’d rather take the learning. Definitely he has things to improve on, he’s human, but it’s not about him, it’s all about the team. ‘The whole team had moments where we have to improve. He wasn’t sent off. It’s not that I want to put the blame on Cian or Tadhg, we all made errors and that ill-discipline harmed the whole team. ‘But in terms of Johnny’s personality, well, that personality makes him the best player in the world.’ Leo Cullen’s side are set to be without one of their prime attacking weapons for their crunch European Champions Cup clash with Toulouse after Lowe was cited yesterday following his red card in Limerick. The Kiwi wing was sent off following a clumsy collision with an airborne Andrew Conway. Lowe will face a disciplinary panel on Thursday evening and is now a major doubt for the seismic encounter with Toulouse at the RDS on January 12. It was sobering night for the reigning European champions who conceded 14 penalties in a 26-17 defeat. ‘About the passion, it is very typical of Irish players. They are passionate and it is a strength,’ Contepomi added. ‘I know it is a very edgy point or edgy line. It can come against you. ‘We will take it as a learning. The indiscipline was bad in terms of the yellow cards and the red card. ‘Things that happen, what frustrates me more is that type of discipline is more a technical issue. ‘That passion brought us to a moment where we can still win the game. ‘We had some critical moments of losing a lineout seven or eight metres from the Munster tryline when we were 16-10 behind. ‘Those are the moments that we need to nail or get right. ‘Personally, I feel very proud of the guys for the way they played. ‘It is tough because we were indisciplined and it cost us. That’s true. ‘We need to learn from that. We don’t have to go through the emotions of the moment. ‘We just have to focus on playing rugby because we are a very good team when we play rugby,’ Contepomi added.