The Leinster legend opened up on the origins of his feud with the La Rochelle coach.
Johnny Sexton has detailed the story behind his long-running feud with ex-teammate Ronan O’Gara in his brand new autobiography Obsessed: The Autobiography.
The former Ireland and Leinster fly-half can trace the animosity shared between him and his fellow countryman back to a big clash in April 2009 at Thomond Park when he was subbed on against Munster.
Recounting the incident that kicked it all off, Sexton describes the melee following a tip-tackle on Chris Whitaker.
“The real flare up started when I went to clear out Lifeimi Mafi after he’d tip tackled Chris Whitaker,” he said, in an excerpt published in today’s edition of The Sunday Times.
“I caught him above the eye with a stud by accident and he retaliated. Fists were thrown.”
He added: “Paul O’Connell was quick on the scene, asking Mafi who’d caused the gash above his eye.
“Suddenly, I have Paulie pointing the finger at me and giving me a mouthful. A scary sight. I squared my shoulders at him, but from a safe distance.
“With Paulie there for protection, O’Gara was also in my face. What the f**k are you doing? I responded by shaping to punch him, just drawing my fist back.
“When he winced, I called him a coward and that really set him off,” he continued. “‘Call me a coward? You’re nothing. You’re useless! A nobody.’
“It soon broke up, but I started his words in a place where they could fester.”
Another piece shared from the autobiography – which is due to be released on 10 October – details the beginning of a kicking ritual which would involve using his rivals face as a vehicle to kick more precisely.
The moment took place during the 2010 Six Nations when Sexton struggled off the tee after controversially replacing O’Gara as Ireland’s first-choice fly half.
A defeat against Scotland saw a turning point. Having kicked two from four, Sexton was about to be withdrawn but was forced to take a fifth kick before he was taken off.
“It was an important kick for me. A turning point. And that’s because of a conversation I had with Dave Alred soon afterwards,” Sexton explains.
“Dave asked me how I’d felt standing over the kick. This was the first time I’d been asked a question like that by a coach. I told him that I’d felt angry — angry at being replaced, angry at the way it had been done, angry that every time I took a kick at goal, I had O’Gara glaring down at me from the big screen.
“Dave reckoned that the anger had worked for me. I’d put some of that anger into the kick and blasted it between the posts, rather than trying to hope the ball over, as I had been doing for a lot of kicks.”
The 39-year-old continued: “So he came up with the idea of using O’Gara’s face to my advantage. Pick your target in the crowd and then transpose his face so that the target is right between his eyes. It was a brilliant bit of coaching — an example of taking negative energy and flipping it into a positive way of thinking.
“My place-kicking percentages improved gradually. They were only so-so against Connacht the following week. The week after that, we were in Limerick, of all places. I missed a couple but got the one that counted near the end, the one that ensured a 1-point victory — Leinster’s first win in Limerick in fifteen years.
“Little did Munster realise that I’d used their number 10’s mug as my motivation.”
Last year, during a compelling walk-and-talk interview with Jim Hamilton on Rugbypass, ROG spoke honestly about where his relationship with Johnny Sexton currently stands.
|Yeah, it’s been a love/hate, hate/love, hate/love. Probably, at the minute, it’s hate,” said the Corkman.
“That’s the right way – and we’ve chatted this through – because two into one don’t go. La Rochelle and Leinster don’t go… [the relationship] was well made up after that [Munster and Leinster rivalry] there were Ireland careers together and, sure, I coached him in Racing. That’s a coach-player relationship, and very different, obviously.
“No, there’s so many different layers to Johnny but there is a really good soul there. I’d like to think the same but, sometimes, perception isn’t reality with the two of them. Because you’re essentially responsible for your team, when you’re the 10, the boss or the goal-kicker and, in his case, the captain. You’re trying to drive the team.”
He continued: “What has happened in the last few seasons has been the fact that we’ve come across them. So, he’s trying to drive his team, I’m trying to drive my team. It’s pretty fake if you think everything is going to be rosy. This is European Cups we’re talking about. This means a lot to an awful lot of people. There’s going to be, without anything controversial even happening, a difference of opinion on how you see things.
“I’m trying to mess him up. He’s trying to mess my team up. If you’ve got these two strong minds, it’s not going to be a period where you’re going to get on. But I think the most important thing is there will be huge respect there.
“You can park that and hopefully revisit it, as you’d appreciate that once you come out of that environment or your environment – your ball of stress and competitiveness – there’s a whole new world out there, and there will be many years afterwards where you can have a vin rouge [red wine] and bit of fromage [cheese] and chat through how crazy we were at that period,” he added.
