'If I just think about the World Cup, it would send me mad'

Johnny Sexton remembers his first Test meeting with Chris Ashton.

Thirteen minutes into the visit of Grand Slam-chasing England to the Aviva Stadium in 2011, Sexton spotted half a hole in the visiting backline. Sexton darted towards it, but Ashton reacted fast, wrapping a grappling arm around Sexton's neck as he brought him to ground.

"You tried to take my head off!" said Sexton as the pair were reunited this month.

The touch judge flagged for a penalty. Sexton kicked it. Ireland went on to win 24-8 and Sexton was named man of the match.

It was just one of 124 Test caps that Sexton won for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions.

Having retired from rugby after Ireland's last-eight defeat by New Zealand at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Sexton joined Ashton and host Chris Jones for a Rugby Union Weekly special looking back at his illustrious career.

Sexton's final game of rugby was one of the finest he has been involved in. Ireland's 28-24 defeat by New Zealand was a pulsating, punishing match with Ireland's final, fruitless 37-phase attack reducing both teams to near walking pace.

"I try and view my career as a collective thing, because I know if I think about the World Cup by itself, I'll go mental," said Sexton.

"I've not watched it back, but I have watched it in my head about a million times. I've thought about it a lot."

There is one particular moment in the New Zealand match that Sexton replays again and again. In the 71st minute, four points adrift, Ireland drove a line-out towards the New Zealand line before replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher broke off the back of the maul and thundered over the line., external

"I had my hands in the air, like we're gonna score. It was an unbelievable piece of play by Jordie Barrett to get himself under a hooker," said Sexton.

"Why was he even there in the first place?

"There are lots of moments in there that you could wish you could take back, but it was an amazing game."

Sexton revealed in his recent autobiography, titled Obsessed, that a confrontation with All Black Rieko Ioane after the final whistle was prompted by the centre taunting him about his impending retirement.

Sexton says he was surprised by the furore that his account of the incident caused.

"I didn't do it to kick things off…I don't really mind that it [the confrontation] happened, you know," Sexton said.

"It was just me explaining why I reacted as I did. I remember texting Joe [Schmidt, former Ireland coach, then an assistant to the New Zealand] after the game and I said 'I know it looked bad, me chasing your man after the final whistle, but this is what happened'."

Sexton admits he went on the 2013 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia with a sense of trepidation about how he and Owen Farrell would get along.

Farrell, 21, was the only other specialist fly-half in the squad, and had made an impression in his short England Test career with his aggression and the standards he held his team-mates to.

"I was a bit anxious going on that Lions tour because you play against people, you don't know them, you have something in your head that says 'this guy is going to be a certain way'," said Sexton.

"I remember I was rooming with Owen the very first night and we just got on well.

"We joked that he was an honorary Irishman because he spent more time with us than he did with the English boys.

"He's a great guy - when you're his team-mate, it's brilliant."

Farrell's father Andy took over as Ireland head coach from Schmidt in 2020. Sexton admits he was initially disappointed by the change.

"Joe was the biggest influence on my career until then and I thought no-one would get close to him," Sexton said.

"Then Andy kind of came in and kind of changed that in many ways. He does it all - he coaches attack and defence brilliantly, like the best of the best."

It was not just the technical side that impressed Sexton. Farrell tapped into his Irish heritage, along with his own experiences from playing for England, to motivate his team.

Sexton said: "Before we played Scotland at the 2019 World Cup, Joe got Andy to present us our jerseys and Andy told the story about what it was like being an Englishman playing at Croke Park in 2007.

That was when England played at the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association for the first time.

"He talked about how, for their anthem, it was dead silence and then what happened when the Irish anthem played," Sexton added.

"He remembers looking across and thinking 'how are we gonna win this game today?' and he said he hadn't really had that thought before in his career- but that is the unique power of the Irish jersey."