I’m not leaving.

As the snow began on fall on Saturday at Twickenham and temperatures dropped, I found myself almost going into survival mode.

Tweeting was reduced to a minimum, with a few short match reports notes jotted down as the game unfolded. But one moment that stuck out and couldn’t be overlooked, featured Ireland’s talisman Johnny Sexton.

The Leinster playmaker has probably been Ireland’s most important player throughout the course of the championship. His drop goal started it all, and his willingness to play through Ireland’s next three games, despite carrying a serious injury, have made all the difference.

That being said, a banged up, bloody nose was not gonna force him off the field on Saturday as Ireland looked to clinch the Grand Slam. With 29 minutes on the clock, referee Angus Gardner stopped the game and called for a blood substitution, as Sexton’s nose began to pump.

But all I could hear in my ref mic was Sexton making it clear to him:

“I don’t need to go off”

“I’m not leaving.”

He didn’t leave, and the nose was cleaned up. A few minutes later the decision was taken from him as a HIA was called. But Sexton reemerged in the second-half, having passed the assessment.

There was no way he was missing any more of this game. Not a chance.