It's not a new thing - outhalves get targeted. Talented outhalves get more targeted than others. O'Gara was the victim of many cheap shots during his career, and now it's Sexton's turn. But with Sexton's unfortunate injury profile, it's now a massive deal.
With players being bigger than they used to be, and Sexton even braver than most outhalves - he takes on more physical punishment than he probably should. Of course if you tell Johnny that he'd dismiss it - he plays rugby to be physical and make his tackles.
The one aspect of Rory Best's captaincy that has been questioned has been his lack of talking to the referee about some of the shots that Sexton takes. Now though, Best is saying that Ireland shouldn't protect Sexton because he doesn't want it:
I think if I put an arm around Johnny he'd definitely be wondering what's wrong.
Johnny's a very, very strong personality. He's got an unbelievable will to win and he's a competitor. He doesn't need an arm put around him. He's the guy that puts the arm around boys and looks after boys to make sure that our standards, he's the gauge of where our standards are because he expects the highest of standards.
He's a big boy, he can deal with it.
Whether Sexton can deal with it or not, it does Ireland no favours to expose Sexton to injury more than he needs to. I'm not saying to stop Sexton from making tackles at all - he's very good at it; but there are times when Sexton joins a choke tackle, or when O'Brien or O'Donnell can get off the scrum faster to stop giants from running down Sexton's channel. Sexton doesn't need preferential treatment, but Ireland shouldn't put him out to dry either
To say Ireland shouldn't protect Sexton is naive, and we could pay a huge price for it.
See Also: Johnny Sexton Answers George Hook Advice That He Should Retire
See Also: Sexton Claims Players Are Being Encouraged To Play Through Head Knocks By Media
Picture credit: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
