The Independent’s Ruaidhri O’Connor joined Keith Wood on Monday Night Rugby on Off The Ball to discuss the performance of 35-year-old Johnny Sexton, after Leinster’s 27-25 victory over Munster on Saturday.

The flyhalf drew the attention of many fans on social media after pictures of him emerged showing off the muscle that he had gained during the lockdown in Ireland.

These new guns added extra expectations of Sexton in his team’s first match back since the return to rugby in Ireland.

“When you consider his last game was a disaster at Twickenham… he was excellent and it's getting that consistency,” O’Connor said.

“I mean we know how good he can be and we know that he has been I think the concern at the age that he is whether he's going to be still able to do that in a consistent basis for the next two or three years.”

Sexton has been the first choice flyhalf for both Leinster and Ireland for almost a decade, with very few potential players consistently performing at a level high enough to challenge him for that spot.

Although Munster’s Joey Carbery is touted as the next man in, he is currently out for an “indefinite period of time” with a severe ankle injury.

“It looks like the way Joey Carbery’s injuries are, and how far away he seems to be in the pecking order, Ireland and Leinster are both going to be relying on [Sexton] for a while in that regard,” O’Connor said.

Carbery has been out of action since injuring his wrist in a match for Munster in December last year.

“It was interesting listening to Brian O’Driscoll talk about him on Friday and talking up Harry Byrne as maybe the guy who is going to come on and on eventually you know push it out of that number 10 jersey but right now that's not happening,” O’Connor said.

4 November 2019; Jonathan Sexton during Leinster Rugby squad training at Energia Park in Donnybrook, Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Wood believes that Sexton has the ability and drive to carry on playing for a number of years, however, he is worried that Sexton might be putting his body through too much.

“Sexton being 35 and playing very well and full of confidence, wanting to play forever, which he has said… he won't play forever if he starts tackling as he did in the first five minutes of the game,” Wood said.

“He needs to get his head lower; he needs to tackle lower. I know that gave a turnover against [Chris] Farrell later on, and I think that was a big turning point.

"As I would say time and time again, I want him on the field at the start and on the field at the end if at all possible.”

Sexton made nine tackles and won the single turn over, however, he also took a number of dominant tackles.

O’Connor was impressed with Sexton’s resilience, particularly with him being targeted in the 10 channel by CJ Stander and Chris Farrell throughout the game.

“CJ stander went after him big time every time he got the ball,” O’Connor said.

“One thing I loved about the game was the amount of times CJ Stander or Jack Conan picked up the ball off the base of the scrum and just took off, I mean that doesn't happen that much anymore and it was lovely it's one of my favourite parts of rugby.

“And CJ Stander just picked up the ball and all he wanted to do was headed for Johnny Sexton.

“Sexton stood up to those, you know, he needed a bit of treatment but when Chris Farrell went after him in the second half, he was able to turn the ball over.”

Wood agreed, stating that that was the way that the game of rugby was moving towards.

“Guys will run at him and target him, that isn't just targeting Johnny,” Wood said.

“The way the game has changed slightly again, the number 8 has a better opportunity to make contact with the opposition 10 so that's going to happen, and it is going to happen a lot.”

Sexton did not let the in-your-face defence from Stander get to him though, as he bossed the Leinster backline and showed that he had learnt from that loss in Twickenham prior to the lockdown.

“The way he varied the kicking game, and the way Leinster varied their kicking game across the board for Robbie Henshaw's try, was very like England in the Six Nations,” O’Connor said.

Both Munster and Leinster made use of several clever kicks throughout the match, with Conor Murray in particular launching pinpoint box kicks onto a struggling Jordan Larmour throughout the game.

This prompted the discussion about whether or not Larmour should be the first choice fullback going forward, with Wood not panicking just yet.

O'Connor was impressed with how much both sides had picked up from their previous matches and watching Super Rugby Aotearoa.

“They're learning, they've picked off by English performance they've seen the way even though I've been dissecting teams that watch what's going on in New Zealand in terms of the way the game is evolving.

“The time Sexton chipped in behind and [Andrew] Conway wasn’t able to deal with it… it was very like that try against England when Sexton wasn’t able to deal with it and England got in for the try.”

With the abbreviated Pro14 championship coming to an end in September, and the new season starting up again as soon as October, there will be a lot of rugby for Sexton and Leinster to play over the next six months.

“He's in great nick, and he’s in for a bit of a relentless ride in the next six months,” O’Connor said.

“We are going to learn a lot about how robust his body is you know at 35, because he's not going to get much rest.”

Leinster will take on Ulster on Saturday night at the Aviva, before likely hosting Munster for a rematch of the weekend’s match in the Pro14 semifinals a week later.

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