It’s only three minutes twenty seconds but in that time Johnny Sexton’s lifetime in rugby flickers before our eyes.
Created by video content agency Along Came A Spider for Investec, Sexton gives one of his most revealing interviews, remembering mucky childhood games at Bective Rangers before dropping a goal to win the 2002 Leinster Schools Cup for St Mary’s.
They haven’t won it since.
“I was only 16, I was in fourth year,” Sexton remembers. “When you are taking a kick in front of your whole school, in front of your family that’s big pressure even at that age.”
That’s a recurring theme with him, a family man, a man of many layers; racked by doubt in those early days on the main stage, he talks about now healed wounds caused by the rivalry with Ronan O’Gara when the pair fought over Ireland’s number ten jersey from 2009-12.
“It was a very uncertain time for me when you get picked ahead of a legend of Irish rugby. You know that half the country, most of the country wanted Ronan to play but suddenly I’m picked. Nobody wants me to play, not even the guys that I’m playing with probably want me to play.”
The missed penalty against New Zealand, to almost certainly put Ireland out of sight in November 2013, is dealt with before a fully matured Sexton sounds so comfortable in his own skin.
He keeps returning to family, this time Luca Sexton.
“The smallest little thing can put you off. I missed a kick in the Australia game because there was a baby crying in the crowd. I’m standing there about to take a kick and I’m just thinking about my little fella at home.
“I’d missed the kick before I had even taken it.
“You think of your family in the crowd tearing their hair out, letting the whole country down. They are distractions where you have to refocus...”
Of course, it comes full circle last November when his accuracy put South Africa then Australia away.
Makes you think: Is there another outhalf you would want to take Ireland to this year’s World Cup and beyond?
Along Came A Spider was founded by Heather Thornton and Sarah Colgan.
Colgan has produced prime time television series for the BBC and RTÉ while Thornton previously worked for Google and London advertising agencies M&C Saatchi and RKCR/Y&R.
