Sexton underscores his importance in historic summer tour success
By Daire Walsh
HE MAY have turned 37 over the course of the series, but St Mary’s College RFC star Jonathan Sexton underlined his continued importance to Irish rugby with a string of impressive performances during the historic summer tour success over New Zealand.
Heading into the three-test saga with the All Blacks, Ireland were still searching for a first away victory against the southern hemisphere giants.
They did defeat them at Soldier’s Field, Chicago back in 2016, but a win had evaded the Green Army from 12 previous encounters on New Zealand soil.
That wait looked set to go on after Ireland suffered a 42-19 reversal to Ian Foster’s men in their opening game of the tour at Eden Park in Auckland on July 2.
Sexton was withdrawn with a head injury into this fixture, which placed serious doubt around his participation in the second test in Dunedin seven days later.
World Rugby recently introduced a new stand down period of 12 days for players who suffer confirmed concussions, but Sexton subsequently passed all the Head Injury Assessments that he was required to take and was fit to captain the team at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
He played a significant role in what proved to be a groundbreaking night for Ireland, kicking 13 points as Ireland finished with 11 points to spare (23-12) over the All Blacks.
Not content with simply earning a first-ever victory in New Zealand, Andy Farrell’s charges went on to win the series courtesy of a 32-22 success in Wellington last Saturday.
Sexton was also in fine scoring form for this game, his haul of two penalties and three conversions helping him to pass the 1,000 points barrier in international rugby.
It was a proud series overall for the Templeogue-based St Mary’s with their club men Caelan Doris and Jordan Larmour also featuring in the squad, while Sexton’s former underage team-mate Vinny Hammond played a key role in the background as a performance analyst.