Look, you’d want to be damned well foolish to go into a game against Johnny Sexton and not talk about getting in is face and letting him know he’ll get nothing easy.
Sexton is one of the very best outhalves in world rugby and he will punish teams at will if he is given time and space. Even with a shred of either, he’ll still do damage.
Against Saracens, in a punishing Champions Cup quarter final, Sexton was in the wars. He will crib and moan about it but, deep downs, he loves the scrap.
In the opening half, Saracens players hit Sexton a little late after he had either kicked or passed the ball. Maro Itoje followed through on a couple of occasions – leaving Sexton with a dead leg on his second charge – but it was George Kruis and Richard Wigglesworth that pushed it too far.
First, Kruis clattered into the Leinster 10 well after he had looped a pass out to James Lowe on the left wing. Colleagues on the 2017 Lions Tour, Sexton complained about the hit as the lock ambled past him. Kruis gave him his undiluted opinion and Sexton flicked a kick at his ankles.
Minutes later and Wigglesworth went a step beyond borderline as he laid a shoulder into 32-year-old’s head after he got a pass away. The big screen replays had the home crowd wailing but referee Jerome Garces opted not to ask the television match official to review the footage.
Following Leinster’s 30-19 victory, head coach Leo Cullen accused the Saracens players of “aggressively targeting” his outhalf. Cullen said he would review the footage himself but noted that Sexton had been hit late ‘a few times’.
Saracens’ director of rugby Mark McCall was next in the press conference room. We asked if it was not natural to go after Sexton, even if it was a little over-zealous at times. He responded:
“There certainly wasn’t any plan to do that. We wanted to make him make his decisions early.
“We wanted him to pass a little bit sooner than he wanted to, to kick a little bit earlier. But apart from that, there was no other plan.”
Everyone watching the game, at the ground and on TV, would have told you Saracens had a clear plan to leave some shoulders and elbows in on Sexton. It was as clear as day.
It is a tactic that makes perfect sense. The only disappointing aspect is that Kruis and Wigglesworth pushed it a bit too much.
In the media room, following the post-match briefings, an English journalist derisively referred to Cullen’s legitimate complaints as ‘Leinster bleating’. Not so. He was merely stating facts.
The other facts are that Sexton had another top game, kicked 13 points, and that Leinster have marched triumphantly on.
