There was a certain sadness around Johnny Sexton, Johnny Cool, Johnny Tough-guy at Ireland training on Tuesday.
He didn’t get to play for Ireland until he was 24, it was something he strived so hard for, wanted so much, enjoyed and treasured.
And reflecting on Edwin Edogbo last Saturday and the treatment of the 23-year-old by an element of social media, it was just so wrong…and Johnny Forthright’s reaction was understandable.
“Look, it’s horrible to see that in this day and age, it still exists like that,” said Sexton.
“In terms of how he is, he’s good. I don’t think he would have paid too much attention to it, and I don’t know if he would have even seen too much of it.
“He’s a pretty humble guy, really level-headed, but it’s not right, some of the comments that were made. I feel for him, I feel for his family. It marred a pretty special day for him.”
Sexton has had first-hand experience of on-line toxicity.
“I obviously have experienced social media, definitely when it was coming up to big games and around big games.”
His overarching thoughts about the subject, as shared with the Ireland players, might even be channeling Johnny Confucius.
“I got advice myself over the course of my career and that was if one of these guys knocked on your door, would you let them in? Why you let them in through social media so.
“I’ve been there. It’s tough. It’s a tough place to be. Sometimes you might block out a lot of it and then you’ll see the back page of a paper or someone will make a comment to you on the street.
“It comes to you. What happened to me is a couple of times, my parents would say, “did you see what your man said about ya’?
“I just said, “mum, can you please stop telling me…’ so it gets in and you have to have ways and you have to have good people around you to cope with it and try and block out as much as you can and concentrate on your performance and your preparation and really narrow your focus.”
It was important not to let it filter into his life, into his mind.
“Because I knew it would have been toxic. Even in the good things, there is always someone who has a different opinion.
“So yeah I knew when to stay away and had all the different settings so it was only those close to me that could contact me.
“That’s probably the best advice I got and can give to the guys now, get a lot of the noise and distractions out of your life.”
This weekend is, of course, England in London on Saturday.
“Any time you go to Twickenham is a huge challenge, no matter where you are or what stage of a World Cup cycle it is. It’s always a big challenge and I think we’ll take some good learnings from the French game.
“It’s important we learn some lessons from that. And make sure we turn up, put our game plan into place, but also have the intent that we need to have when we go to an away venue like this.”
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