Leinster Rugby
Brian O'Driscoll offers some captain's advice to 'confrontational' Johnny Sexton
"I don't know if it always comes across well"
Alex DunneContent Editor
Updated 12:05, 3 JAN 2019
2015 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final, Millenium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 18/10/2015 Ireland vs Argentina Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll with Jonathan Sexton Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Johnny Sexton's 'confrontational' style does him a disservice when dealing with referees, according to Brian O'Driscoll.
Sexton's performance against Munster last Saturday - during which he swung out at Fineen Wycherley and also got into it with Joey Carbery, as well as failing to keep his Leinster side under control in the first half - was roundly criticised.
And O'Driscoll - team-mate to Sexton for eight years - believes that the Dubliner does himself no favours with the way he carries himself on the pitch.
The former Ireland captain also warned Sexton of the knock-on effects his feisty attitude has, saying allowing that to fester at the top of the team's pecking leads to the ill-discipline shown by the Blues in Limerick.
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"I think Johnny antagonised Frank Murphy a little bit early on," O'Driscoll told 'Off The Ball'.
"I can understand to a certain degree what he was saying.
"I think from a captaincy perspective, Johnny is an antagonistic type of person. He always has been and he is fiery. That's what makes him deliver time and time again because he gets that out of himself.
"I don't know if it always comes across well. It comes across as confrontational rather than conversational.
"That's where the likes of a Rory Best comes into his own, where irrespective of how irked he feels, you never really know how put out he is - he's the only one who knows. He deals with it extremely well.
"When he's disappointed, he parks it and off he goes whereas Johnny has a bit more of a heightened appetite for conflict and so when he is trying to get his point across, particularly with a baying crowd jeering and getting into Frank Murphy's head, you're fighting the cause at times.
"I think that side of the captaincy, because you are the guy who is trying to lead from the front, it does filter down to the rest of the team and sometimes has a negative knock-on connotation."
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