No more reffin’ hell as Johnny promises to zip it
YOU can’t teach a old dog new tricks, but Lions veteran Johnny Sexton is hoping his learning isn’t done yet, vowing to button his lip after his bullying behaviour on two consecutive Saturdays towards Jaco Peyper. Sexton was only on the Eden Park pitch last Saturday for 22 minutes, but— having already had words the previous week with referee Peyper in the Lions’ win over the Maori at Rotorua — he again let his infamous crankiness get the better him. His evening ended with a stand-up row with the South African that didn’t reflect well on the Dubliner. ‘Yeah, definitely, it’s part of my game or personality that I need to work on. I’ve been working on it for the last 10 years so it’s been going really well,’ quipped the Leinster and Ireland out-half, who turns 32 on July 11. ‘Things happen in the heat of battle where you wave your arms. ‘What I said to him after the game was that it’s an instinctive thing to wave your arms and what I said to the ref wasn’t out of order or anything like that. ‘When you pass and someone slaps a ball down, the whole team will do it (wave their arms). ‘I just explained to him at the end that he gave out to me for waving my arms, but it’s an instinctive thing. ‘Everything has got to go through Sam [Warburton] this week. Sam seems to have a really good relationship with the refs, especially when he plays for Wales.’