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Jonathan’s Diary: Varls, Christy And London Calling

With a solid week’s training behind them, Jonathan Sexton and the Ireland team are hoping to finish the RBS 6 Nations with a St. Patrick’s Day success at Twickenham which would secure second place for the men in green. Read on for Sexton’s latest diary from the Ireland camp.

It’s been a good week in terms of training and that’s normally a good barometer for a big performance; something that we’re going to need to beat England at Twickenham tomorrow.

Christy Moore came in to sing a few songs at Carton House on Thursday night, something that everyone thoroughly enjoys.

It’s my third time to watch Christy play for us and it’s as captivating as it was the first time. Damien Varley got up an sang a few of Christy’s songs with him. He’s seriously talented and Christy’s not bad either!

I missed out on Brad Thorn’s debut in Leinster colours in the ‘A’ interprovincial against Connacht but the lads who went were very impressed and I’m looking forward to both meeting him and playing alongside him.

It was great to see Padraig Harrington come back into form and shoot that superb 61. He’s been working with Dave Alred, with whom I also work. He might be dangerous in the Majors this year if he can maintain the momentum.

This week in crazy golf we had an eight ball. That meant it took us two hours to play a course that should take 10 minutes. Guys were lying on the ground to line up putts!

It promises to be a very special occasion tomorrow, a massive day in the context of how we will review this Six Nations Championship.

We obviously want to finish on a high. If we win then we can look back positively on what we have achieved since losing to Wales.

In the Welsh match we suffered in terms of crucial decisions but there would be some consolation if we manage to negotiate the rest of the tournament undefeated.

It’s important to finish second. If we lose then we’ll only have beaten Scotland and Italy and that puts a completely different complexion on it; not least because we set our own high standards and we demand more of ourselves.

St. Patrick’s Day in London promises to be colourful…and hopefully an integral part of the celebrations will be an Irish win.