'Little bits of luck' fueled England's winning streak – Sexton
The early retirements of the likes of Jamie Heaslip, Luke Fitzgerald and Kevin McLaughlin provided Ireland with added motivation to wrap up the Grand Slam against England on Saturday, according to Jonathan Sexton.
The Irish and Leinster flyhalf also claims ‘luck’ played a part in England’s long winning streak.
Ireland triumphed 24-15 at Twickenham to clinch a third Six Nations clean sweep and a first since 2009.
Heaslip had to retire last month due to a back injury sustained in the warm-up for last year’s clash with England in Dublin, while the careers of fellow Ireland internationals Fitzgerald and McLaughlin were also curtailed on medical advice.
Sexton, whose drop goal with the final act of Ireland’s opening fixture against France set the Grand Slam ball rolling, said he would savour the moment all the more having seen international colleagues robbed of their involvement in the sport.
“You think about those guys,” he told reporters. “I got a lot of texts from those guys before the game. I got some very special texts from different people that I’ve played with over the years.
“But yeah, those guys you wish they were here with you. I’m sure they’re very proud, especially the guys that were injured this year, who played a part in the campaign – guys like Robbie [Henshaw].
“He’s as much a part of it as the guys who played five games.
“But you do think about those guys a lot.”
Ireland's Grand Slam. Rugby's Greatest Championship.@SixNationsRugby #NatWest6Nations #TeamOfUs #ShoulderToShoulder pic.twitter.com/0bPC2dwR4Y
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) March 17, 2018
Ireland’s achievement also represented a first Triple Crown for Sexton, who joked about his early days in the set-up alongside some of the team’s all-time greats.
“I remember sitting in the changing room years ago before playing Scotland at Croke Park and Declan Kidney talking about how Triple Crowns are hard to come by,” he commented.
“I looked around and saw Ronan [O’Gara], Brian [O’Driscoll and Paul [O’Connell] throw their eyes to heaven – they had five or six of them at that stage!
“Definitely at that stage in my career I didn’t think that all these years later I’d still be trying to win one, but when we won the French and Italian games, we said ‘Right, now go and try to win the Triple Crown’. We tried to break it down like that.
“I would say it’s a big high point to my career, if not the best. It’s a very strange feeling.”
The result left England with a third successive defeat and a first home loss since Eddie Jones took charge in the wake of a disastrous 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Jones previously led England to an 18-match winning run, equalling a record held by New Zealand but ended – as it was for the All Blacks – by Ireland.
“When they were winning on that streak I think they were getting little bits of luck. They’d say so themselves,” Sexton added.
“When they played Australia here last year in November, Australia had a couple of tries chalked off when on other days they might have been given.
“Suddenly those don’t go your way. You’re still the same team, you still work as hard and I’m sure they’ll bounce back.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Does a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
128 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
128 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
128 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
128 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to comments