O’Gara: Sextons Kicking Return Was Not Good Enough

Ronan O’Gara has said that Johnny Sexton knows that a 50% return on his kicks is not good enough, but has backed his former Ireland teammate to adjust to life at Racing Metro very quickly.

O’Gara, who is now kicking coach at the French club, was speaking in the wake of their first win of the season last weekend, a win which saw Sexton score three out of a possible six penalties.

Yet speaking to the press after the game, O’Gara knows exactly what Sexton is capable of, and is in no doubt everyone will see that in the months ahead.

“To be fair, two kicks were from 40-plus metres. I said to him afterwards: ‘Jonny, I have had 20 games like that, so it’s important that you make sure for the next four weeks you pick up so that it goes six out of eight, five out of six, four out of six, five out of six, but we can’t be having three out of six or two out of seven’.

“When you want to be the best – and Jonny wants to be the best – it’s important that you learn from it. There are no technical problems there. I just think it was tricky.

“He said to me before the game that he was nervous and I suppose that’s a measure of how humble the fella is because he’s here and he’s taking it very seriously.I think he’ll take a few weeks to find his feet.”