A decade ago Irish rugby was hit with the bombshell that Johnny Sexton was departing Leinster for pastures new.
After seven years at Leinster where he won multiple league and European titles, the then 27-year-old joined Racing 92. Months of negotiations with the IRFU bore no fruit, and Sexton eventually put pen to paper with the Parisian club on a deal that would see him earn a rumoured €700,000 per annum.
Understandably, Leinster fans were devastated. Irish fans in general were also worried. By 2013, the IRFU were adopting a policy that frowned upon non-domestic based players featuring for the National team. An exception was of course made for Sexton (Simon Zebo wasn’t so lucky), and he continued to star for Ireland as Joe Schmidt’s side won back to back Six Nations titles in 2014 and 2015.
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But at club level, Sexton struggled. Joining the club off the back of the 2013 Lions Tour, he started 13 games in a row and by the time the Autumn Internationals rolled around, the fly-half was already burnt out and troubled by injuries. The French side were dumped out of Europe at the group stage and never got close to winning the Top-14.
The following season didn’t go much better, with Racing crashing out of Europe at the quarter final stage and didn’t get past the last eight in the domestic league either. Predictably, Sexton returned to Leinster in the summer of 2015.
When he left Paris, he did so in acrimonious circumstances. Over the course of his 18 month spell in the French capital, he clashed numerous times with teammates, coaches and the media.
At times, Sexton cut an unhappy figure, so much so, that he revealed to the BBC that he considered quitting Racing just weeks into his career in France.
"There have been games where I thought 'I’m walking in on Monday and telling them I’m going home.'
"Then there’s other games where I’ve come off thinking 'right, this is the start of it, I could be here forever.”
Never one to hide his emotions, Sexton’s unhappiness was noted by a number of times by his coaches. So much so, that head coach of Racing at the time Laurent Labit, publicly chastised Sexton for his failings as a teammate.
“He didn’t always perform for Racing and he knew it. And it irritated him very much.
“Jonathan had the tendency to employ a rather forceful manner and use a colourful language in the heat of the moment. Sometimes it bordered on insults.
“At some moments Jonathan was really uncontrollable.”
Always a tetchy character, Sexton even almost came to blows with a teammate on one occasion. In the build up to the 2014 Top14 play-off clash with Toulouse, the Irishman and Juandré Kruger had to be separated on the training field.
Perhaps it was an attempt to improve standards. Perhaps it was an effort to create a winning culture. Whatever it was, it rubbed many in the French rugby game the wrong way.
It’s safe to assume at the very least he wasn’t the most popular man in the dressing room. Some teammate’s even reportedly referred to him as ‘The Zlatan Ibrahimovic of rugby,’ which really tells you all you need to know.
In the French media, Sexton was vilified. Racing’s woes were placed firmly at his feet, with media reports suggesting that the Dubliner’s moody presence impacted the side as a whole. And when he got wind of Labit’s comments, Sexton offered this rebuttal:
“I do think it was a little bit personal considering some of the stuff that was written about me by certain French journalists. I does hurt when it is not true. I don't mind when people criticise my performance because that is black and white. But when they make up stuff about your personality and portray you as I don't think I am, that can hurt.
It probably came from the coach who is probably trying to look after himself a little bit. But it is what it is.”
Inevitably, Sexton’s sortir into French Rugby didn’t last long. Two seasons after shocking the world, Johnny was back in Leinster pulling on the blue shirt of his home province.
Since then, he has won another slew of League titles and another Champions Cup medal (at the expense of Racing in the 2018 final), along with a grand slam and World Rugby player of the year win in 2018.
A facial injury will rule Sexton out of a reunion with his old side at the Aviva Stadium this weekend. However, the 37-year-old will be fit for the Six Nations and, barring injury, will lead Ireland to the World Cup in France later this year.
C’est la Vie.
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