Sexton happy to take up the baton, albeit a week too late
CURIOUS how a fiveweek-old Co Kildare gag now has a very telling Wellington punchline on the other side of the world. It was at North Harbour outside Auckland, at the June 1 training session that was the Lions’ first in New Zealand, that Warren Gatland referred to an incident at Carton House by way of highlighting how his then fledgling squad’s camaraderie was coming along nicely.
‘It was quite funny last week at the end of training, I said can I just have a chat to the 10s? Dan [Biggar] and Johnny [Sexton] were there, and Owen [Farrell] was over there and Johnny said, “Don’t worry about him, he is a midfielder”. There is already a bit of banter about,’ said Gatland.
Sexton was forced to immediately clarify what he said when he came through to his media sit-down in the room next door. ‘It was just a joke. Just a joke!’
Twenty-eight days later, though, came word that the training ground gag was no longer a gag. Farrell the midfielder would actually be happening, Gatland gambling everything on a ploy he had run a mile from all tour.
It’s daft that nine games into a 10-match match trip that everything now hinges on an alignment that hasn’t been properly road-tested.
The Sexton-Farrell 10/12 axis only made an emergency 51minute appearance in the win over Crusaders, and then mopped up for the closing 22 minutes of last week’s stunted first Test performance — Sexton coming off the bench on both occasions to play as sub 10 and bump Farrell into the 12 role.
That’s a miserly 73 minutes in unison out of a possible 640. Hardly the sort of seasoned combination to be feared by the All Blacks. Yet, there we were Thursday, sat in a circle in a New Zealand Post Office building room (the Lions’ hotel wasn’t big enough to cope — so much for all the pre-tour reconnaissance), listening to Sexton trying to make sense of a promotion he had only learned about a few hours earlier.
‘We only found out this morning so it was obviously late in the week to find out, so it has been a weird prep having to try and stay focused not knowing whether you are going to be on the bench or starting. Yeah, delighted to get in there. I get a chance now to impress and to tie the series hopefully.’
It’s intriguing how Sexton was kept in the dark until Thursday morning when told by Gatland; the Wednesday evening on-theground steer on the team was that he would be starting. The manoeuvrings at training hadn’t convinced him, though.
‘When we were running during the week it was very much swapping in and out. Sometimes it was me to 10 with Owen and Ben [Te’o] together, sometimes it was Ben and Jon Davies together. It was very much mixing and matching amongst the four of us. The decision must have been made yesterday (Wednesday) some time because we only found out this morning (Thursday).’
There’s a relief in Sexton’s tone. So poor was his pre- and early tour form that few would have given him a chance of being in this position, starting against the All Blacks. Yet, when it to first Test selection last week he was unfortunate not to occupy the 10 spot having turned around his form and been more impressive than his rival Farrell, who has been average all tour.
Sexton won’t quibble. Now it’s time to get down to business having finally convinced Gatland and Farrell’s father, assistant Andy, he is worth a look, even if it means now trying to build a partnership on the fly with Farrell and not with former Leinster team-mate Te’o, whom he lists in a tour profile as one of his must-have dinner guests along with Roy Keane and Donald Trump.
‘I was asked before if it was the biggest challenge of my career to get ahead of Owen and because of the respect I have for him I said yes,’ said Sexton.
‘He is a world-class out-half but I back myself publicly and I’ll hopefully bring something to the team this week that will get us over the line. I have big respect for him and a good relationship, so hopefully we can click and the team plays better on Saturday and tie up the series.’
Hopefully has been the most used word by the Lions this week in Wellington, such is nature of the backs-to-the-wall situation they find themselves in, one down in the Test series and facing the prospect of the situation becoming irretrievable if they don’t respond, so much of that defiance dependant on the Sexton-Farrell gamble.
‘It’s the starting combination this week as opposed to one that the coaches sort of thought of towards the end of the game last week,’ reasoned Sexton, who will leave place kicking duties to Farrell. ‘It’s very much two playmakers as such, two five-eights. I have always admired him. We get on great, stayed in contact since the last tour (Australian 2013). The fact is that we have got a good relationship, apart for trying to kill each other in the Aviva especially last time (Ireland versus England), we get on great.’
Sexton was in unusual playful mood sizing up the task ahead. He is normally an intensely serious character, but he was in his element, leaving the room ringing with laughter on a couple of occasions. Take a question about how the All Blacks responded to their Chicago loss to Ireland, would the Lions now need to play like the All Blacks did in Dublin to turn things around.
‘I don’t think so because if we did that we’d get a couple of red cards,’ he said to mush amusement, New Zealand having stepped over the mark that November day.
‘We need to keep our discipline but we need to show some intent and show what it means to represent the jersey, what that jersey means and let the people at home know there was great effort last week. There are just a few areas we need to clean up on, but we need to show what it means and not to lose as many confrontations and physical battles as we did last week.
‘We need a response, don’t we? If you’d seen the scoreline at the end of last week’s game, you would expect to see a totally different game when you went back and looked at the footage. But the way the All Blacks played and beat us was not how they have traditionally beaten teams over the last couple of years. They really took us on around the fringes.
‘It’s a huge challenge but it’s a huge opportunity as well. You don’t get many chances to create history in your career and to turn around a series like this, after going 1-0 down, would go down as one of the greatest Lions performances.
‘We need to view it as an opportunity rather than as a daunting challenge. That is the view we are taking.’