ALIVE
Fired-up Sexton puts boot into doubters and says: This is not a crisis, it’s our chance to make history
JOHNNY SEXTON booted the prophets of doom into touch ahead of judgement day for the British and Irish Lions.
The Lions’ new general refused to accept he and his team-mates are chasing a lost cause at the Westpac Stadium this morning.
“You don’t get many opportunities to create history,” he said with a steely glint in his eye.
“To turn around a series like this after being one-nil down would go down as one of the greatest Lions performances.
“So we need to view it as an opportunity rather than as a daunting challenge. To go and attack them, give it our best and see where that takes us.”
In a two-horse race, odds of 5/1 are available on Warren Gatland (circle) and his men levelling the best-of-three series.
The All Blacks have won 47 successive home matches dating back to 12 September 2009. In that time, they have also captured back-to-back World Cups.
The Irish fly-half (with Owen Farrell at the Westpac, below) could not be less interested in the stats. He didn’t get to where he is today by caving in at the first sight of conflict.
Running scared didn’t get the No.10 jersey off the back of Ireland legend Ronan O’Gara. Nor did it win him three Six Nations crowns and three European Cups.
It didn’t help him steer the Lions to a series triumph over Australia last time round, nor win him back the Lions fly-half jersey after losing it to Farrell a week ago.
And, perhaps most pertinent to today, it didn’t enable him to beat the All Blacks in Chicago as recently as eight months ago.
“We said to each other yesterday, let’s play our best and take a few more chances,” Sexton said. “We’re pretty confident where that might take us.”
Even for a fiery character like him, Sexton knows that going medieval on New Zealand is not the answer.
Asked if the Lions need to replicate the overtly physical way the Kiwis played in Ireland a fortnight after their Chicago defeat, he smiled.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “If we did that, we’d get a couple of red cards!
“No, we need to keep our discipline but also show what it means to represent the jersey – not lose as many physical battles as we did last week.”
The Lions of 1971 and 1993 each bounced back from Test losses with wins in Wellington. Sir Clive Woodward’s England also beat the All Blacks on this very pitch five months before becoming world champions.
A forecast of wind and rain is unlikely to do the Lions any harm either. But the bottom line is that they are up against one of the most successful teams in the history of sport.
“This compares to a World Cup final in terms of the one-off nature of the game,” All Blacks captain Kieran Read said. “They win, they level the series. We win, we win the series.
“Last week was massive and this will be a step up. We can’t just wait for what they’re going to bring, we’ve got to go out there and take it ourselves.”