The 'pinch of salt' Sexton reaction to Leinster beating Toulouse
Player of the game Johnny Sexton wasn’t shouting in celebration from the Aviva Stadium rooftop after Leinster had blasted past Toulouse in Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup semi-final. The veteran out-half had inspired his team to a comfortable 40-17 win, scoring 15 points with the boot and giving the assist for two of the four tries.
It meant that the reigning champions had been brilliantly dethroned, their hopes and ambitions of collecting their sixth star in the May 28 final in Marseille shattered on a sunny Dublin day. But Sexton wasn’t inclined to get caught up in the hoopla generated by the boisterous Leinster support in the bumper 42,076 attendance.
Instead, foremost in his mind was how the French outfit had been in the same Irish stadium last weekend seeing out a 100-minute thriller versus Munster, an escapade that had to have a level of wear and tear on Toulouse.
Sexton was also conscious that the job was by no means yet done for Leinster, that this was only a semi-final and bad memories still lingered from their defeat in the 2019 showpiece by Saracens in Newcastle.
“It was good, we did some really good things,” he initially enthused before proceeding to slap on the breaks and dispel the mood in the media room that this was a time to party, that Toulouse had been sent impressively packing.
“I just said to the guys outside when I did interviews that what I was most pleased about was that we didn’t let the mistakes faze us, going 7-3 down when we were dominating the first few minutes. We didn’t let it get on top of us and we just bounced back. How we came back from the bad moments was most pleasing.
“We did some good things and we built on last week’s performance. We just dug in last week (at Leicester in the quarter-finals). It wasn’t great in terms of how we used the ball but we built on it and we need to be better in the final because, at the end of the day, Toulouse played 100 minutes, had to travel home, had to travel back here again, so we have to take it with a pinch of salt. We don’t just want to get to the final, we want to win it – so we have achieved nothing yet.”
That prompted a request for his thoughts on the lingering frustration from the final of three years ago, an afternoon where Leinster looked poised heading towards the break to win their fifth title only to throw it all way and allow Saracens to take the spoils.
“Small margins: 10-3 up just before half time, I made a decision to box kick, last play of the half, could have kicked it out and it would have been half time, but we wanted to go and try and put pressure on Sarries and get another score. We conceded and it was 10-all at halftime.
“We let that get to us that day, came out after halftime, had a couple of chances to score, a couple of decisions went against and that is the game – they score and we are chasing the game against a team that loves when you chase. So very small margins and that is what you love in these finals, semi-finals.
“That is something you need to work hard to make sure you are on the right side to win them because it is about the preparation and know-how and we need to use positive experiences. We have been a champion team before but we also have the Saracens final, what we could do better.
“You’d love to go back but in sport you don’t get the chance but now we have another chance. I never thought I’d get another chance and it’s great. We’re so driven to put the fifth star on the jersey. Every single person in the dressing room, whether it’s staff, guys who were playing, guys who weren’t playing, everyone is really driven. It’s a special environment to be a part of.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments