{"id":190407,"date":"2025-06-17T01:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T01:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/190407\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T01:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T01:21:09","slug":"johnny-sexton-insists-he-is-here-to-help-finn-russell-despite-past-lions-criticism-british-irish-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/190407\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Sexton insists he is \u2018here to help\u2019 Finn Russell despite past Lions criticism | British & Irish Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnny Sexton has insisted he is \u201chere to help\u201d Finn Russell in his capacity as British & Irish Lions assistant coach<\/a>, after the pair shook hands and cleared the air last month following the former Ireland captain\u2019s previous criticism of the Scotland fly-half.<\/p>\n

Sexton toured with the Lions in 2013 and 2017 but was a surprise omission from Warren Gatland\u2019s squad in 2021. In his autobiography, the former Ireland captain revealed how the snub \u201ckills me to this day\u201d and described Russell as a \u201cmedia darling\u201d before suggesting in a subsequent interview that he was \u201cflashy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sexton, who retired after the 2023 World Cup, was added in April to Andy Farrell\u2019s coaching staff for the tour of Australia this summer, making for a potentially awkward reunion with Russell, who is the favourite to start at fly-half in the three-Test series against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

The pair had a brief catch-up at the first squad get-together last month, however, with Russell explaining recently that the air had been cleared. \u201cWe ended up having a laugh about the whole thing,\u201d Russell said. \u201cI certainly don\u2019t bear a grudge against him and we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sexton is adamant that he will do all he can to assist Russell \u2013 who joined the Lions squad<\/a> in Dublin on Monday after celebrating Bath\u2019s Premiership final victory<\/a> on Sunday \u2013 in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably been blown out of proportion, really,\u201d he said. \u201cI was talking about myself in 2021 and how I felt back then. And it was more really about what I thought Gatland was thinking as opposed to what I was thinking. But look, you have to deal with these types of challenges. It won\u2019t be the last time. We had a handshake and a brief chat. He was racing off because those guys who were playing in finals didn\u2019t stay too long.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s Sexton and Finn Russell of Scotland competing against each other in the Six Nations in 2015. Photograph: Russell Cheyne\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to catching up with him [Russell] later. What the Lions demands of you is that if there is a rivalry \u2013 which there\u2019s not, but if there was \u2013 you leave it at the door. I\u2019m here to help him now. I\u2019m here to give him experiences. I\u2019m here to answer questions. I\u2019m not here to force myself on him or tell him what to do. It\u2019s not that relationship. I\u2019m here to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Russell, Bath\u2019s Will Stuart and Leicester\u2019s Ollie Chessum have also joined the squad, as well as 12 Leinster players following their URC final victory<\/a>, meaning only Toulouse\u2019s Blair Kinghorn is absent from the 38-man touring party. Tadhg Furlong, who has not played since early May, joined training on Monday, while Hugo Keenan and Jamison Gibson-Park sat out the morning session along with James Ryan, who went off with a back injury on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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After providing cover last week at the training camp in Portugal, Jamie George and Asher Opoku-Fordjour are due back in England\u2019s training camp on Tuesday and will not be considered for the Lions\u2019 warm-up match against Argentina on Friday. Henry Arundell has been omitted from the England squad preparing for the match on Saturday against a France XV, however, having been called into training last week. Six Bath players and three from Leicester have been selected after the final last Saturday, including the man of the match, Guy Pepper.<\/p>\n

Owen Farrell meanwhile has completed his return to Saracens after just a season with Racing 92. The 33-year-old has joined on an initial two-year deal before making the expected move to the coaching staff at his boyhood club after Saracens agreed a compensation package of around \u20ac200,000 (\u00a3170,000).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny Sexton has insisted he is \u201chere to help\u201d Finn Russell in his capacity as British & Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-190407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114696086035107609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}