Johnny’s so glad he got last chance...

IRELAND’S Grand Slam remains on track thanks to Johnny Sexton’s lastgasp winner.

The fly-half said: “It was one of those moments – I’m just happy I got another chance as we have worked so hard over the last few weeks and all our goals would have crumbled today if we had lost.

“It’s great to be in the position we are now after getting an away win. I had a kick to put us two scores clear but I just snatched at it so I was happy to get another chance to secure victory for the boys.

“The boys’ legs were out and I don’t think we could have got through another couple of phases. The management drill into us every day that it’s never over and we have got some good characters in the team. We just wanted to get off to a good start.”

Head coach Joe Schmidt said: “It’s pretty hard to explain how you feel when you think that the game has gone away and you’ve let it slip and then suddenly you’ve grabbed it.

“It was an incredible effort to work their way up the pitch ending with a 40-metre drop goal. It’s fairly inspirational. There are so many players involved, we played so many phases (41), it was difficult to clear out the ball a number of times.”

Schmidt added: “It was a stop-start game with a lot of penalties. If you try to break a French defence with slow balls you’re really up against it. They’re a tough layer. Maybe people underestimate how hard it is to come here and win.”

Full-back Rob Kearney said: “It’s quite incredible really. We probably got out of jail a little bit.

“To build that amount of phases, to keep the ball in awful conditions and then the stones on Johnny at the end was incredible.

“I thought it (the drop goal) was going to be a little short. It went in slow motion and it just crept over.

“We knew it was the last play. He ran off celebrating and we all went along. It was unbelievably special.”