Nonsense.

Former Ireland and Leinster captain Brian O’Driscoll has hit back at Ross Moriarty and his claims that Johnny Sexton gets ‘special treatment’ from match officials.

Moriarty reckons the Leinster and Ireland ten gets ‘special treatment’ and that he was a victim of Sexton’s ‘big-name status’ when he was controversially shown a yellow card a couple of weeks back for a late hit.

Speaking on the BBC Wales Scum V programme, the former Gloucester man said:

“Some may say it was harsh, some may say it was fair, but if Johnny did that against me in that game I know for a fact he would not have had anything happen to him.

“It’s nice to see little players running around making a fool of big players but when a big player gets hold of a smaller one there’s always a big scene.

“Most players will have had something happen to them if they hit Johnny Sexton off the ball because obviously he has a big pull in the game these days which is quite sad.”

But O’Driscoll has rubbished those claims – suggesting Moriarty is taking a leaf out fo Warren Gatland’s book by throwing a ‘hand grenade’.

“I don’t know if Ross Moriarty has been looking at some of the footage of Six Nations over the last couple of years,” O’Driscoll told BBC Sport NI.

“He [Sexton] got a little bit of treatment in the England game two years ago. I remember a (French lock Yoann) Maestri hit that went unpunished.”

“I don’t know. Ross Moriarty is obviously taking a leaf out of his coach’s (Wales boss Warren Gatland) book and and throwing a hand grenade in there.”

“But I don’t think players pay that much attention to what is said. It’s about what you do on the park rather than what you say you are going to do.”