SHUDDERS AS BEAUTY OVERCOMES THE BEAST
Out-half backwith a bang to defy brute force with bravery
JOHNNY SEXTON won this match for Ireland. But far more importantly, he survived an afternoon as first prize in the Mathieu Bastareaud coconut shy. He ended the match with stiches holding together the skin around his left eye, but given some of the wallops he endured and the predictions thick with doom made about his health last week, this counted as a good outcome.
Ensuring Ireland stay at the top of the table was a happy by-product of 80 minutes spent avoiding French attempts to reduce him to steak tartare.
There was even the man of the match award for Sexton, loudly approved of by the supporters but in fact harder earned by Robbie Henshaw, Jared Payne or Conor Murray.
Yet nobody but Sexton could be the star here, not after all that had been said and argued over in the preliminaries.
Had France started the match with Bastareaud’s head poking out of a cannon with a fizzing fuse, their desire to use him as a weapon against Sexton could not have been more obvious.
And on seven minutes, they opened fire. The 20-stone centre was given a pass that doubled as a declaration of war. Before him stood the Irish out half, and Bastareaud took off.
Just on contact, his right elbow shot up towards Sexton’s jaw, whether deliberate or instinctive it was unclear.
Sexton was not swept away, however, and he checked Bastareaud’s flow long enough to allow support from Sean O’Brien and Henshaw to arrive. The France centre was pulled to the ground and if the confidence this let loose in Sexton approximated to the cheers that detonated around the Aviva Stadium the returning No10 should have been swelled.
However, a sport that harnesses such power and whose charm is contained in chance as much as skill does not oblige neat fairytales of return. The dream of Sexton returning after three months on the side- lines and occupying his steepling standards without a misstep looked plausible in a first half in which he made no mistake, scored all Ireland’s points and was confident and brave.
Four minutes into the second half, blood oozed down the left side of his face and the dream had been pulverised somewhere in the collision between Sexton and Bastareaud, a head-against-head crash that left both men bloodied but that prompted fears for the Irishman beyond the effects of superficial injury.
The replays ran twice and on each occasion the groans that echoed around the ground were not exaggerated. The reason was not just the shuddering sight of two heads colliding but the concussion problems that have forced Sexton past the sidelines and into the joyless rooms of French neurosurgeons.
Head injuries are now established as serious and potentially grave topics in rugby, and Sexton departed for treatment with the potential effects of the bang surpassing even the game’s outcome as the biggest concern around Lansdowne Road and beyond it.
He returned after eight minutes of treatment, and into a game that had grown cranky. Pascal Pape had been sent to the sin-bin for a cheap knee to the back of Jamie Heaslip that deserved a red card, and Rory Best followed him for a daft foot-trip that allowed Camille Lopez the opportunity to bring France within a converted try of the lead.
He missed, in keeping with the current trend for French teams to try and shoot themselves in both feet if at all possible.
This was now no environment for intricate play-making; Ireland led by nine points and were withstanding French pressure that was constant but had all the method and deliberation of a rainstorm. Their attacks were random and were conceived in panic, born of the need to avoid more disappointment.
It bore no similarity to the clichés of French rugby served up like offcolour mussels all week. The France analysed by many is a figment of history, yet Ireland struggled over them, a jigsaw with missing pieces.
A week after doing what was necessary to win in Rome, they were
pursuing the same approach now. The comfort provided by their No10 was great, though, and his sixth successful kick of the afternoon, just before France muddled over for their try, established his good health after his latest trip to the medics.
By now there was a vivid red welt over Sexton’s left eye but no evidence he had endured an injury more troubling.
The predictable suggestions from the French camp that Sexton should consider wearing a helmet in this match garnered more attention than they merited from some excit- able corners; it appeared little more than a crude joke.
The subsequent diagnosis of danger provided by former French lock Laurent Benezech – seemingly based more on hearsay and guesswork than the latest neurological studies – infuriated some within the Irish camp, and led to a statement released late on Friday by the management ‘in light of some disappointing and inaccurate commentary in the media by individuals with no medical expertise’.
This seemed a misjudgement by Schmidt and his team; all week they had remained firm in stating that the treatment of Sexton adhered to all necessary regulations.
If there was a Frenchman to be vigilant about around Sexton it was Bastareaud.
More than once his charge was stopped by a combination of O’Brien and the mighty Henshaw, but a force like him is not quietly contained.
He reappeared from his own treatment following the clash with Sexton a minute before the Irishman and near the end the pair had collided again, Bastareaud steaming into the out half who was left shuddering as a result.
All France could offer was brutish power. Ireland and Sexton won through craft, cuteness and courage.
The French rugby clichés were served up like off-colour mussels – they are a figment of history