Banger.

Brian O’Driscoll reckons Eddie Jones had another pop at Johnny Sexton this week to deflect attention away from Owen Farrell’s controversial tackle in their win over the Springboks and their game against the All Blacks today.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Jones turned his attention to Sexton when asked if Owen Farrell was carrying a knock heading into tomorrow’s game, after damaging his hip as a result of the massive hit on Andre Esterhuizen.

“If he was Johnny Sexton, then we’d be able to complain about him, but because he’s Owen Farrell he’s allowed to be hit late,” Jones said

“He gets up and he plays on. He’ll be like that this week.”

In an interview with the Irish Independent, O’Driscoll says Jones threw a “banger” in Ireland’s direction to take attention away from the game.

“It’s throwing the banger over in that direction to take attention away from what is the mainstay point,” said O’Driscoll.

“Here we’re talking about it, rather than the actual point, which is who’s going to win the match. It’s a side-plot to the bigger theme of what’s more important, the game on Saturday.”

“Do I think Johnny Sexton’s more protected than Owen Farrell? Farrell throws it around a lot more than Johnny Sexton, so maybe from that perspective there’s less sympathy when he cops a late one, because he’s prone to the odd loose one himself, as the end of the South Africa game showed.”

“Johnny doesn’t need protecting. But I think as well that Johnny, even more so than Owen Farrell, Johnny takes the ball to the line and encourages those shots, because they are marginal, a lot of them.”