Johnny Sexton has fanned the flames of his feud with New Zealand’s Rieko Ioane, suggesting he’ll be supporting Munster when Ioane arrives at Leinster next season.
Former Ireland and Leinster captain Sexton famously clashed with the All Blacks centre following their World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand in 2023, and that beef escalated further in the autumn of 2024, when Sexton gave his version of events in his autobiography.
Ioane responded with a number of thinly veiled social media posts before playing a central role in New Zealand’s win against Ireland at Aviva Stadium in November, and so it came as a major shock when he confirmed in April that he would be joining Leinster next season on a short-term deal, similar to Jordie Barrett’s sabbatical in the 2024/25 season.
Sexton was speaking to the media on Monday as part of the British and Irish Lions game against Argentina this Friday, and gave a mischievous answer to being asked for his opinions on Ioane’s future move to Dublin.
“Wow, save the best [question] for last,” he laughed.
“I purchased my Munster season ticket last week, put it that way.”
A short, tongue-in-cheek reply, but one that said a lot in very few words.
The 39-year-old was in relaxed form as he spoke to the media at UCD, where the Lions squad are based this week ahead of their warm-up game against Los Pumas on Friday.
A smaller squad of 24 trained in Portugal last week, with the Leinster, Bath and Leicester Tigers contingent linking up with the squad tonight following their URC and Premiership final exploits on Saturday.
For Sexton (above), many of this Lions squad are former team-mates and opponents, and he says he’s wary of the fact he’s on this tour as a coach rather than a player, as he was in 2013 and 2017.
“Obviously I know these guys really well but, with that, comes a challenge in how you deal with them, particularly when they’re friends.
“And it’s the same thing when you’re meeting people for the first time, there’s pros and cons with that. You have to try to get to know them as people, get to know their strengths and weaknesses.
“Sometimes you can have a perception of a player from what you see through a TV screen and no matter how much footage you can watch and then you can see something different live.
“You can see a different person to what you expected. I’m enjoying being back, that’s the main thing. Hopefully I can add value because that’s ultimately what you want when you come into a job. You want to feel like you’re making a difference and I want the players to say ‘he’s been good for me’.
“I want to impart some of the knowledge that I’ve picked up over 17 years as a pro, to give it back.”