{"id":205156,"date":"2025-06-22T13:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T13:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/205156\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T13:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T13:01:10","slug":"finn-russell-breaks-silence-on-his-put-to-bed-rivalry-with-johnny-sexton-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/205156\/","title":{"rendered":"Finn Russell breaks silence on his ‘put to bed’ rivalry with Johnny Sexton : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finn Russell has broken silence about his allegedly strained relationship with Johnny Sexton, after the now-retired Ireland out-half branded his Scottish rival \u201cflashy\u201d and a \u201cmedia darling\u201d after losing out on British and Irish Lions selection to Russell in 2021.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sexton unloaded about his disappointment in the autobiography published after his playing career ended following the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Little did he know at the time that just two years down the line, he would be working as one of Russell\u2019s coaches on the 2025 Lions tour to Australia.<\/p>\n

Having agreed to join Andy Farrell\u2019s Ireland set-up on a full-time basis later this year, Sexton also took up an offer from his national team boss to hook up with the Lions as an assistant. That decision means he began working with Russell at the start of last week when the Scot joined the squad in Dublin following his Premiership<\/a> title win with Bath.<\/p>\n

There was plenty of speculation regarding what might unfold with the pair now on the same side, but any hint of discomfort was quickly nipped in the bud with The Sunday Times claiming that, according to one of the Lions\u2019 backroom staff, Farrell dealt with the situation in \u201ca typically Faz way\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ireland great names his \u2018three or four nailed-down\u2019 Lions Test places and explains why he would \u2018want to kill\u2019 Henry Pollock<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sexton has his say on the matter in the lead-up to Friday\u2019s 24-28 loss to Argentina<\/a> at Aviva Stadium and before the team flew out to Perth the next day, Russell got to have his say about his former Irish rival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a bit of craic I suppose\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a bit of a craic I suppose,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was never a thing. When we came in, we had a laugh straight away and Andy kind of put it to bed, so that was good. Not that it was ever going to be an issue, I don\u2019t believe.<\/p>\n

British and Irish Lions: Tom Curry slammed for \u2018illegal\u2019 and dangerous tactics, leaving fans \u2018amazed\u2019 that he keeps escaping punishment<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all here with the same goal, which is to win the series. I have only been here a few days but it\u2019s been good working with Johnny. I\u2019m happy to bounce questions off him and chat to him about what he is seeing because with the numbers we have had he has had to jump in sometimes. So it\u2019s been quite funny being on the same training side as him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to have a guy with experience here. I can chat to him and bounce things off him as and when I need. All the coaches seem open to have conversations and have chats. It\u2019s a good environment to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lions<\/a> chose Fin Smith as their starting out-half and Marcus Smith at full-back against Los Pumas, but the expectation is that Russell will be involved in their next match \u2013 Saturday\u2019s clash with the Western Force in Perth.<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong>: How Owen Farrell rated dad Andy\u2019s view on B&I Lions loss and what the reaction will be when \u2018they come off the plane on the other side\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finn Russell has broken silence about his allegedly strained relationship with Johnny Sexton, after the now-retired Ireland out-half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[6162,10105,186,5313,33921,225,522,678,41254,12,4151,712,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-205156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-argentina","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","12":"tag-finn-russell","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-international","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-johnny-sexton","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-rugby","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114727150575858192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205156","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=205156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}