{"id":227692,"date":"2025-06-30T22:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T22:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227692\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T22:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T22:17:14","slug":"he-imparts-wisdom-and-mongrel-in-you-johnny-sexton-can-be-great-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227692\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He imparts wisdom and mongrel in you\u2019 \u2014 Johnny Sexton can be great coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Fogarty, the British & Irish Lions assistant coach, relayed a story about Johnny Sexton the other day that neatly spoke to the heart of his subject.<\/p>\n

Fogarty\u2019s formal role is to oversee scrummaging, but just as important is his unofficial position as the head of craic. \u201cI\u2019m starting to feel like one of those comfort dogs,\u201d he said, jokingly. He arranges a little game for the players each day, and last week pitted forwards against backs in a challenge that required them to head a football between each other and then finally into a wheelie bin.<\/p>\n

The forwards did it twice, enough to win the challenge. The backs, under Sexton\u2019s charge, managed it only once. It is fair to say that Sexton did not take the result well. <\/p>\n

\"Fin<\/p>\n

The Ireland legend has a wealth of experience to pass on to the Lions No10s, including Fin Smith<\/p>\n

SEB DALY\/SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnny, surprise, surprise, questioned the referee \u2014 me \u2014 and has done a review of it,\u201d Fogarty said. \u201cThere\u2019s always guys that spoil things; Johnny is one of them still!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sexton\u2019s competitive edge was renowned during a career in which he won 118 Ireland caps and almost every major trophy other than the World Cup. He followed retirement in 2023 with a brief stint in business but quietly slipped back into the Irish coaching team last year, and is now an assistant on this Lions tour. Yet it is not always a given that players of his ability will succeed as coaches. <\/p>\n

\u201cCoaching is not an exact science. Just because you know it on the field doesn\u2019t mean you can articulate it to others,\u201d Michael Cheika, who coached Sexton at Leinster for four years when he burst into the senior team in 2006, says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have the ability to turn what you can do to other people, who maybe can\u2019t do the same things that you could have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronan O\u2019Gara, Sexton\u2019s predecessor as Ireland\u2019s fly half, is proving that you can be a great player, then a great coach. The 48-year-old has already led La Rochelle to two Champions Cup titles and will surely become a Test coach soon. Andy Farrell has made a successful transition, as has France\u2019s head coach and former scrum half Fabien Galthi\u00e9. But several of the other dominant figures in rugby coaching were not world-leading players. <\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

Sexton, right, was quick to eradicate any sniff of conflict with Russell, left, who pipped him to a place on the 2021 tour much to Irish legend\u2019s deep disquiet<\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

So Sexton\u2019s challenge now is to facilitate, not dominate, if he is to back up his playing successes as a coach. For years, his drive and intensity was his trump card. Now he has to be empathetic and collegiate with the Lions No10s Finn Russell \u2014 whom he did not think should be on this tour in the first place<\/a> \u2014 and the Smiths, Fin and Marcus.<\/p>\n

Those who know him well believe he will change, but only to a degree. Might he at least be a bit quieter as a coach? \u201cI\u2019d say no,\u201d says Les Kiss, who coached Sexton with Ireland between 2009 and 2015 and is now in the opposite box, preparing his Queensland Reds team to face the Lions on Wednesday in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis coaching game can frustrate the hell out of you sometimes. He\u2019s got to be himself. He can be quite emotional, but I think that\u2019s a strength of his as well. He brings out his energy in the right way and he can fire you up too.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because you know the game and you can talk to tactics and you can be a good pundit, that doesn\u2019t transfer to being a good coach. There\u2019s a lot of things about building rapport, building relationships, creating a psychological environment that\u2019s safe but challenging at the same time.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan<\/p>\n

Kiss, right, coached Sexton for six years with Ireland and believes his former charge has the skills to succeed<\/p>\n

BILLY STICKLAND\/INPHO<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good players that can\u2019t make it don\u2019t get it. The good players that do, they transfer that quickly into knowledge, into an understanding that players can get their head into and then help them get better every day. Not only with their footballing skills but with their emotional skills, their psychological skills. I see that in Sexton.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been put to Sexton on this trip that he might get a game at No10 if injuries mount. That semi-serious suggestion is not that ludicrous, especially as he filled in at fly half in the pre-tour training sessions in Portugal. However, he would not fancy facing the First Nations & Pasifika side on July 22, between the first and second Tests, if they are full of hungry Islanders looking to rearrange his ribs, now he is 39 (40 in July) and retired.<\/p>\n

Cheika believes Sexton will transfer his playing skills well. \u201cHe\u2019s very knowledgeable, and he\u2019ll be able to guide younger players around with kicking, and handling the pressure, but also being aggressive,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good opportunity for him at the pointy end of the triangle, so I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll find out pretty quickly if he likes it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiss thinks that Farrell bringing Sexton here is a masterstroke. The fly half who implemented Schmidt\u2019s plans with Ireland for years, he is the best man to help unpick the tactics of the Wallabies coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing him along is another layer of weaponry,\u201d Kiss said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the best competitors I\u2019ve ever seen. That\u2019s going to flow through the team in some form. It might just be in front of a computer, or while they\u2019re doing some kicking. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe does have that gift to impart a bit of wisdom and a bit of competitive mongrel in you. He\u2019s going to be fairly important for what they build over the next 2\u00bd weeks before the Test matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

So you might see and hear Sexton less, as he is buried underneath his Lions coaching cap and stuck behind a plastic screen at stadiums around Australia, but be assured that he is a pivotal cog. This tour\u2019s success may even be defined by how much he can enhance the Lions\u2019 plans \u2014 and ruin Australia\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Fogarty, the British & Irish Lions assistant coach, relayed a story about Johnny Sexton the other day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-227692","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\/114774635100376291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227692","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=227692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}