Johnny Sexton: Lions need to realise 'every time you play in the jersey it means a lot and it's remembered'

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Johnny Sexton has urged British & Irish Lions players to make the most of every opportunity they get in the tourists' famous red jersey as the first Test against Australia looms ever larger.
The former Ireland captain and fly-half talisman was speaking from Canberra's GIO Stadium on Tuesday as he oversaw the Lions kickers' training ahead of Wednesday's tour match against Super Rugby semi-finalists the Brumbies.
Sexton had been the stands at the venue 12 years ago as a non-playing Lions squad member when the Brumbies beat Warren Gatland's side four days before the series opener against the Wallabies and he referenced that loss when he underlined the importance of players taking every chance they get to shine on tour.
Wednesday's renewal with a side now coached by Stephen Larkham comes 10 days out from this tour's first Test and with head coach Andy Farrell picking a possible full strength side to face the Brumbies, assistant coach Sexton feels there is no time to lose for players to make a statement.
Asked if he felt the Lions were at a point the coaches felt was on schedule for that opening Test, he referred back to the pre-tour defeat to Argentina in Dublin on June 20.
'I think - and you might laugh when I say this - but the most impressive thing about the Argentina game was how cohesive we were in terms of the gameplan,' Sexton said. 'What cost us was showing 50-50 passes that weren't on and we paid a huge price for that in terms of their transition and they punished us with tries and we didn't make the most of our entries into the 22.
'So, our cohesion has been pretty impressive. I think Andy's done a great job with that and the other coaches. It's about putting that out there and I think the group needs to realise every time you play in the jersey it means a lot and it's remembered.
'I remember what happened 12 years ago, I remember what happened 24 years ago. These games stick in people's memories despite it not being as important as the Test. So you've got to make the most of every opportunity you have in the jersey.'
Addressing the key objectives for the Lions in Australia's capital city, Sexton said he was looking for improvements on last Saturday's hard-fought win over the Waratahs in Sydney.
'A better performance and good result, same as every game. We are not thinking too far ahead. We are not thinking about Saturday and we're not thinking about Test one.
'We are thinking about as good a performance as we can put out there tomorrow night and the boys are in a good place. The strange thing about this is fitting everything into two days. We travelled yesterday and we have one day prep for the Brumbies with a slightly different game plan for the one we had against the Waratahs.
'It is a challenge for the players, it is a challenge for the coaches, but that's the beauty of a Lions tour, isn't it?' Sexton added: 'We learnt some great lessons against the Waratahs. In the other three games, I think we played some great rugby. We don't just concentrate on one game. You take each part of the game, whether it is breakdown or set-piece, and you concentrate on those areas to get better.
'The guys have a huge opportunity to go out and keep the run of good form going and try and get another good result. Then we've got one more game before the Test series and then obviously the other one is sandwiched in between the first and second Tests. So we're really just game-by-game focused.
'We've never been fully happy with any of the performances. We always try and take the result out of it and just focus on the different areas of the game. There was plenty in the last game that really jumped out at us. They (the Brumbies) have obviously spoken about how they've seen some chinks in our armour and how they're going to go after us so we need to make sure we show them some different pictures.'