RUGBY UNION
ULSTER V LEINSTER
PRO12, SATURDAY 3PM
IT’S A BLUE START
Sexton says the building of another winning team begins here
By DAIRE WALSH
LEINSTER out-half Jonathan Sexton believes the Blues should not be comparing themselves to the province’s most successful teams in the past.
The Ireland out-half acknowledges they need to get back to the level of the teams that sealed Heineken Cup titles in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
But he also believes the club has to take their current position as a starting point.
He said: “I don’t think we’re far away. It’s important now that we’re not comparing ourselves to those teams. We’re building from now and this is our start point. We want to finish on a high this season, then build the way the last team built.
“The last team didn’t just get good overnight. It started with a Magners League, it built into some harsh lessons in Europe, then eventually we got there and we stayed there for a good few years.”
When Sexton returned from Racing Metro last summer, there was an entirely new coaching staff waiting for him at Leinster.
He admits he found it difficult to discover his best form initially but has now firmly adjusted to the environment under Leo Cullen.
He added: “I thought I was going to be plain sailing too. I thought I was just going to come back in and it would be like old times but it wasn’t.
“I struggled myself at the start performance-wise and had a could of really bad games in Europe.
“But since I’ve been more comfortable in the environment, my form being much better, really since the start of the year I’ve been happy.”
Since he was ordered to take a 12-week break following the completion of Ireland’s 2014 November Series, there has been an ongoing discussion about the effect that concussion has had on the Rathgar man.
Some believe that his tendency towards high-tackling has led to a number of physical hits in games, but Sexton was quick to dismiss this claim.
“Why do I go high? I do it because it stops the opponent from offloading. We did it with Ireland when Les Kiss first came in, everyone was doing it. All of sudden it’s become a big issue with me for some reason, people are linking it to head knocks. Crazy talk.
“Surely you’ve got more chance of being hit in the head if you dive at someone’s knees than you do tackling somebody high.
“As long as one person who never played the game says ‘Oh, he’s more susceptible’ it’s gospel.
“It’s waffle, tackling high is nothing to do with getting hit in the head. I feel that sometimes I tackle better high. I can show you times when I have gone low. I can show you times where I’ve gotten hurt trying to tackle low, I can show you bad examples of me trying to tackle low.
“There’s other guys who tackle the exact same way and there’s no issue there.”