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The 42FM
The Explainer
19 Nov 2024
Johnny Sexton shows we don’t give up our heroes easily
00:00

Gavin and Sinead discuss what happens when a totemic leader reaches the end.


Should they be kept close to the team, or even be given a bespoke role like Johnny Sexton? Or is a clean break as in the case of Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp or Bill Shankly preferable?


Could Sexton be inhibiting the next wave of Irish out-halves, in the same manner that Alex Ferguson’s lingering presence at Old Trafford weighed heavily on successive managers?


Or is it totally different for a player, and would Ireland be mad not to keep Sexon’s rugby brain in house?


The pair debate the merits and otherwise of a dominant, era-defining character having a say in the next era. And they wonder what a young Sexton would say if faced with a similar set of circumstances when it was time for him to make the Ireland 10 jersey his own.