Sexton still has that snarl after all these years
THE dog-eared letter which Johnny Sexton’s mother, Clare, unearthed at a recent family dinner could become something of an heirloom of Irish rugby. It captures the competitive edge which, now aged 32, still makes Sexton the General in the No 10 jersey.
‘It was funny,’ says Sexton. ‘I’d written this letter when I was 10 and mum brought it round to my new house not so long ago. It was a letter of apology to one of my old teachers.
‘I was playing midfield in a football match and at half-time our coach — who was also the ref — moved me to goalkeeper. We were going well. I wasn’t happy and I told him where to go, with a few curse words.’
More than two decades later, Sexton still barks at anyone who crosses him. He has steered Leinster to six wins from six in Europe and now, in his ninth Six Nations, he is ready to add to his 74-cap haul.
‘That hunger’s still there every day,’ says Sexton. ‘The lads still slag me off for being a bit grumpy if things aren’t going well. I find it hard to hide that frustration on the pitch but, when I’m at home with my kids, I’m a totally different person.’
Sexton, who recently moved back to his childhood village of Rathgar, featured in all of last summer’s Lions Tests in New Zealand.
Subsequent medical bulletins backed up his bloody-mindedness, having secretly played through the final Test with a broken wrist and ruptured ankle.
‘You try to avoid the scanning machine because if you get a bad result, you are sent home,’ says Sexton. ‘I hurt my wrist in the second Test so I just got it strapped.
‘There was a bit more pain on the flight home, so I got the scan and there was a hairline fracture in my arm and I had it in a brace for six weeks. It wasn’t a big deal and it’s all good now, thankfully.’
Rarely one for sentiment, Sexton stashed away his latest Lions jersey, but plans to hang it in his godfather’s pub in North Kerry. It is the same pub where, as a competitive schoolboy, he used to wind up the locals by repeatedly kicking a ball thousands of times against the back wall.
‘It’s a really old pub which has always has a lot of memorabilia on the walls,’ says Sexton. ‘His dad, John Keane, is a famous Irish playwright, so there’s a lot of his bits but also a few old rugby jerseys.
‘When I was a kid, I said, “If I get my first cap, can I put my jersey up?” So he agreed to put it above a two-seater snug. If I go down in the summer time, we’ll sit there and have a chat over a couple of pints. Hopefully, he can find some space for my Lions jersey next time I’m there.’