Ruaidhri O'Connor: Johnny Sexton has gone right in at the top with the Lions and he's looking and sounding comfortable
October 14, 2023 was the last time Johnny Sexton did a press conference – and while there was a book and a flurry of media around its publication, the list of questions has built and built.
Yesterday, he was back in front of the cameras as a Lions assistant coach, taking questions and giving his usual frank answers on a range of topics from Rieko Ioane, the young Irish players trying to fill his boots, Finn Russell, his return to coaching with the Lions and the accusation that there are too many Irish players in the touring squad.
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Irish Examiner
22 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Sexton advises Crowley and Prendergast to 'delete social media' and for supporters to fully back both players
Johnny Sexton has urged Munster and Leinster supporters to put their differences aside and back whoever is selected in the Ireland number 10 jersey. The selection battle between Munster's Jack Crowley and Leinster's Sam Prendergast has divided opinion along provincial lines and with the two fly-halves set to compete for the starting jersey once more in next month's two-Test Ireland tour to Georgia and Portugal, their mentor believes the protagonists should be given equal backing by all. Sexton will become a full-time assistant to Andy Farrell in the Ireland set-up following his British & Irish Lions duties this summer in Australia and speaking ahead of Friday's pre-tour game against Argentina at Aviva Stadium, he said of the Irish 10s: 'Well, I've worked closely with them through the Six Nations and I've done a couple of sessions with them beyond the Six Nations and Jack and Sam, remarkable talents, huge futures ahead of them. 'The life of a 10 is up and down. No matter what player you look at over the years, they've had periods where they've been amazing, they've had periods when they've not been. They're just so young. You've got to give them a chance to learn and experience these things, but the level that they are producing already in their careers is amazing really. 'They're so far ahead of where I was, for example and they've got the world at their feet with the work ethic they have. They're humble guys, they do want to learn, they want to practice hard and that's the thing that you look at the most as a coach. You look at the attitude and how humble they are because ultimately that's what will stand to them going forward. 'One thing I disagree with is some of the narrative around it in terms of there's obviously a split in the country in terms of Munster-Leinster and I've been there before. I've been in that situation and with social media getting bigger and bigger it's tough on them at times and it shouldn't be like that. We should be supporting whoever's picked and getting fully behind them.' Read More Leinster contingent reports for duty with British and Irish Lions Sexton revealed he had 'told them to delete social media,' but did not know whether that was heeded. 'All you can do is try and advise in terms of what worked for me. I was exposed to it a little bit at the very start and it's tough, isn't it. As a kid, as a seven, eight, nine, 10-year-old, all you want to do is play for Ireland and when you do it and suddenly you're getting criticised. Not all the time but sometimes and it's kind of, 'wow, this is a bit tougher than I thought it was going to be' but it builds a resilience. 'You find out who are your mates, who are those that you trust and who are those that you can lean on. Going forward, I think they'll be stronger for it.'
Irish Times
31 minutes ago
- Irish Times
‘There is no animosity,' says England's Ben Earl of his Lions teammates despite fiery Six Nations
Ben Earl is in Ireland , along with his Lions teammates, following a training camp in Portugal where golf and bonding was as much to the fore as putting in the hard yards. The flanker has played 26 games this season for Saracens and England, but the Algarve warmth and the changed vibe has whetted his appetite for more. It is the first time he has been in a Lions camp. Ten years ago, he couldn't have imagined it was possible. Earl's first step towards becoming a professional rugby player was during a cricket trip to Yorkshire more than a decade ago. A talented teenager across sports, he played cricket with the England schools team and was an underage player at Kent. READ MORE As the England backrow tells it, the team travelled north and he went into bat but was out 'pretty soon'. He spent the next two days fielding, during which time the realisation hit him that maybe rugby was a better option. Now 27, he has more than 40 Test rugby internationals with England under his belt. But before all of that, he rubbed shoulders with current cricket professionals such as England top order batsman Zak Crawley and Sam Curran. He also came into the orbit of Ollie Pope, the current vice-captain of the England team. 'I don't think I'd have been as good at cricket as I am at this sport but yeah, there was a decision to be made at some point,' says Earl. 'So, rugby, the training's hard but you're not put through the mill in terms of mental stuff and some of the stuff those guys have to go through – travelling and whatnot. 'I've not really looked back. I loved my cricket and I love my golf, but rugby is my true calling and I'm glad it worked out. Ben Earl and his Lions teammates are preparing for Friday's match against Argentina in Dublin. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire 'Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ollie Pope, those are guys I had the privilege of playing with and against . . . English schools, Kent County stuff but now I just enjoy playing golf against those guys.' Earl doesn't want to talk about preferred numbers on his back. He is happy to let Lions coach Andy Farrell select him anywhere across the backrow. Nor does he carry animosity from an often-fiery Six Nations, despite the main rivals for his positions coming from Wales and Ireland as well as his teammate Tom Curry. The Lions' first game, against Argentina on Friday, will give some indication of how Farrell is thinking, although it's early days yet. There are six matches to play before the first Test match against Australia in Brisbane on July 19th. 'If there's any animosity, I haven't felt it,' says Earl. 'In terms of mutual respect, my respect is unlimited for some of the guys that I'm going to have the privilege to play alongside and to compete with for spots. He namechecks Jac Morgan, Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Curry and Henry Pollock, and says of them: 'People I have a huge amount of respect for, some who I know extremely well, some who I know not very well at all. My respect for them has no limit. Animosity, no; respect, yes.' For Earl and others, it is almost like stepping into an Irish camp with Farrell, Johnny Sexton , John Fogarty, Simon Easterby and Andrew Goodman flavouring the landscape. While England coach Steve Borthwick comes across in public as a more intense figure than Farrell, Earl sees similarities between the two. The common denominator is that they both demand high-level performances. 'Both do things slightly differently, but I don't think there is any right or wrong way,' he says. 'It's however you get the best out of the group. There's many ways to skin a cat in this regard. 'Obviously rugby is rugby, so everyone has similar principles. It's more just like wording and a different way of looking at things and that's probably been the most exciting thing for me. I'm now going into my 10th season of professional rugby and some of the stuff I've learnt over the past seven or eight days has been awesome. 'I probably haven't learned as much in such a short space of time for a very long time, so it's been great – rubbing shoulders with people that I've looked up to for a very long time. It's been awesome.' Leicester's Ollie Chessum and Bath's Finn Russell, who played in the Premiership final, as well as all of the Leinster players involved in Saturday's URC final , joined up with the Lions squad in Dublin on Monday.
Irish Times
31 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Owen Doyle: Rugby players seem to think they can interrogate referees. It needs to stop
'If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same . . .' At some stage in our lives, many of us have found inspiration and comfort in Rudyard Kipling's wondrous poem, If. Maybe Leo Cullen has too. Leinster have had their fair measure of disasters over the last few years, with nothing to show on the triumph side of the balance sheet. Losing finals and semi-finals by small margins has been bitter medicine. Not to mention the penalty try that went missing in the Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton . Through all of this, Cullen has remained calm, dignified, not once trying to lay the blame at the door of any match official. Not publicly anyway. It's doubtful I was alone in forecasting that the trophy would be heading south of the equator. Unusually, it's quite a pleasure to have been proved wrong . READ MORE It wasn't just a win, it was a performance of the highest quality where everything clicked. The normally powerful Bulls had no answer . The coach of the San Francisco 49ers, the great Bill Walsh, entitled his leadership book The Score Takes Care of Itself. That's precisely what happened. Now here's a key question. Can the scrum spoil the Lions series? The short answer is yes, but there are a few relevant reasons that might provide a glimmer of hope. We have seen too many top-class matches badly impacted by illegal scrummaging, including the URC final and, for good measure, the English Premiership final. However, Lions coach Andy Farrell and Australia counterpart Joe Schmidt both favour positive play, with Farrell's men likely having the stronger scrum. So, for example, on the Lions put-in, let's hope the intention will be to play the ball away, not to try and pulverise the opposition to win a penalty. On Australian ball, legitimate disruptive actions, including pushing straight, should be ordained. World Rugby elite referee manager, Joel Jutge, is bound to have had discussions with the two coaches with a view to working out an agreed scrummaging modus operandi. Failing that, the appointed referees can help the situation, as well as themselves, by being stronger with scrum decisions. 'This is not what we agreed before the game,' said referee Andrea Piardi as he reset yet another scrum during the URC final. If it isn't what was agreed, by all means tell them, but don't omit a necessary accompanying sanction. Later on, with only eight minutes left, he was still appealing for good behaviour. Otherwise, Piardi had a good match. None of his decisions affected anything very much, certainly not the clear-cut result. It was not the dog-eat-dog fight that had been widely anticipated. It was also important that there was no controversy; there has been far too much of it during the season. There have been some poor refereeing performances for long enough and it is a dreadful blot on the URC landscape. The clubs should be up on the rooftops, shouting 'enough'. Leinster's Jack Conan speaks to referee Andrea Piardi during the URC final against Bulls. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho Piardi is not alone in bringing trouble to his own doorstep by having long conversations with players who are all too keen to disagree with decisions. Players, not just the captains, are constantly appealing, even though they know perfectly well why the call has been made. It's happening far too much and getting worse. Referees are being subjected to interrogations, with players also pointing to real or imagined offences by their opponents. It will be interesting to see how this stuff is handled in the Lions series. Piardi will referee the second Lions test – the first Italian to do so. Molte congratulazioni. He will have an uncomfortable time if he allows players to be consistently in his ear. Piardi must keep his chat to concise, precise explanations and not be drawn into debates. Referees should only deal with the captain. It is clear that match officials have overdone their desire to be seen as the players' understanding friend. That approach is now backfiring. Then there is the TMO. How will that operate on the Lions tour? The Premiership final saw it reach new levels of interruption. The TMO, Ian Tempest, cooked up a different storm by bringing several, very marginal issues to Karl Dickson's attention. These took an age to conclude and could just as easily have been decided the other way around. Referee Karl Dickson points towards Dan Cole of Leicester Tigers before issuing a yellow card during the Premiership final. Photograph:One of these was farcical. The question was whether or not Leicester's Nicky Smith, on the ground under his own posts, had deliberately handled the ball. Solomon was needed to apply his wisdom to this one, but not so easy for a mere referee. Dickson took a long time to find in favour of Smith. Tempest also asked the referee to take a look at Dan Cole thumping late into Russell and the resulting yellow card raised another debate. Cole's coach, Michael Cheika, was livid. The wise referee rule-of-thumb, that only the clear and obvious should be sanctioned, must also apply to TMO intrusions. Otherwise, silence please. Then there is the intolerance of coaches towards match officials' mistakes. If there is a fingertip knock-on in the build up to a vital try, which is only seen afterwards, then the affected team's coach will blow an almighty fuse; we see it often enough. What a pity that rugby's Corinthian spirit has long since left the building.
