Ronan O'Gara: There's too much in Johnny's immediate future to pause and enjoy points record
Savours Breaking On Winner: Ireland's Try Saturday Sexton His Nantes Record In Jonathan
IT was a slightly out-of-body experience watching French television coverage of Ireland’s World Cup pool game on Saturday against Tonga and listening to the abstract debate about Johnny Sexton, Ronan O’Gara and Ireland's test point records.
This was something in the offing from the moment Johnny decided he was continuing in green up to and including this World Cup and the truth is that he would have surpassed the existing bar before now but for injury and suspension.
Amazingly, I didn’t have to lie down with a wet towel on my forehead after he went in for that splendid first-half try.
When you are ten years finished as a player, you compartmentalise that part of your career, all the more so when you move into the coaching sphere. I think had I left rugby and gone into the business world, one might be more inclined to hold onto those trinklets from the past. It's something I have always done, drawn a hard line under my playing career. It's done and gone, move on.
Every day is too important to be lingering over the days you no longer have control over. You open up broad new horizons by progressing into coaching, and if I stopped to see where that journey has taken me over the last decade, from France to New Zealand and back to La Rochelle, it honestly takes my breath away. That's why I don't peer into the rearview mirror often if at all.
The only thing is you will always be a competitor, whether you’re in the game or not. That never leaves you. There was an interesting graphic on social media on Sunday charting the stages of our points accumulation over the course of our respective careers. Johnny hasn’t had a young Johnny Sexton nipping at his backside like I did; he remains the standout ten in this country by quite a distance, whereas in the latter phase of my international career, the tallies start to diminish rather dramatically with the minutes on the pitch.
People seem to fixate on our relationship. Johnny and I were direct competitors for a bit but we got on really well when he came to Racing 92. We haven’t been in touch much over the past three years because that’s professional sport and we are rivals. Johnny is trying to win European Cups with Leinster, I am trying to win them with La Rochelle. We’ve crossed swords in each of the last three campaigns, and we both want to win.
But that is a very different rivalry. When I think where my head was at in 2013 compared to now, it is just night and day. Things I obsessed about then I wouldn't give a second thought to now. When you transition out of playing, you begin to appreciate the friendships you retained. Then a move into coaching takes you down a very different rabbit hole of learning, improving, communicating, performance and achieving. It’s more holistic by nature for the good reason that the idea of the individual is not part of your strategy.
The point being that now I have too many other things consuming me from day to day now to be lingering over who has the most points in an Irish shirt. I had that personal accolade for a decade, Johnny gets to enjoy it and take it into his retirement, and he might get a decade out of it himself. Until the next man up.
He will enjoy that in a quiet moment. I’m proud of my 1,083 test points and 1,365 Heineken Cup points, but they aren’t on the mantelpiece. he was being honest after Saturday's game when he said it was nice, his young lad might appreciate it more - now can we move onto South Africa.
I’m as proud of what came after my playing days in terms of Super Rugby and Champions Cup titles, and for us both, it’s nice to have two Irish men in the top five test points scorers. It’s a super achievement by him, as is his longevity, and I dropped him a text to say as much after Saturday’s game – with a kicker that they go on now and win the World Cup!
The way Johnny broke the record was emphatic and representative of the way this Ireland team is playing rugby. It was a fantastic score to put the cheery on top of a fantastic personal milestone.
Well done Johnny.