'He doesn’t want lads feeling sorry for him': Ireland's Johnny Sexton wants no sympathy

Dave Kilcoyne concedes Ireland’s players have not yet contemplated life without talismanic captain Johnny Sexton as they bid to help send him into retirement as a world champion.

Fly-half Sexton has returned from a lengthy injury and suspension absence in record-breaking form to lead Andy Farrell’s men to the cusp of the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.

The 38-year-old surpassed Ronan O’Gara as his country’s all-time leading points scorer with a try, a penalty and four conversions in Saturday’s 59-16 Pool B win over Tonga.

Ireland move on to pivotal Paris showdowns with world champions South Africa and Scotland seeking to secure their spot in the knockout stages.

Asked if the squad have processed the fact Sexton will not be around for much longer, prop Kilcoyne replied: “Being honest, no.

“It hasn’t really been talked about him finishing up. He’s just focused on the now, he’s already talking about next week.

“What better way to do it than just keep performing as best as we can every week for him? That’s what he wants.

“He doesn’t want lads feeling sorry for him because it’s his last tournament, he just wants to prepare the best he can every week and the team to prepare the best they can and leave no stone unturned in our prep.

“That’s the best way you can reward him.”

Sexton registered a 24-point haul in an 82-8 success over Romania on the opening weekend of his farewell competition before adding another 16 against Tonga to move on to an unmatched career total of 1,090 in the green jersey.

With the Springboks on the horizon, he was withdrawn at half-time in Nantes.

Kilcoyne, who played the second half at Stade de la Beaujoire, believes there will be no let up as Sexton and head coach Farrell relentlessly drive standards and push for more.

“What an absolutely incredible achievement to get,” said the loosehead. “But, I could see it in him, he felt almost embarrassed getting credit for it.

“He always wants more, he’s such a highly-driven individual but at the same time he’s such a team-first man, such a selfless man.

“The relationship himself and Faz (Farrell) have, they’re both similarly-minded, they’re both so highly-driven, always want more, more, more.

“But they have such a team-first mentality and it’s so infectious. We’ve been building this team for a long time and it’s just great to be a part of it.”

Kilcoyne feels back to peak physical condition following his first outing since suffering a hamstring tear during last month’s training camp in Portugal.

The 34-year-old is helping to keep spirits high among the squad by dishing out light-hearted punishments to team-mates guilty of misdemeanours alongside fellow “sheriffs” James Ryan and Jack Conan.

He said: “I don’t shy away from it – law and order must be maintained in the squad! It’s good craic.

“Faz encourages us all to be ourselves and to let your personality shine through and I’ve always been myself and I know how important it is to have real positive energy within the squad.

“It only takes one fella to be off, or to allow energy to dip or whatever but it’s really important to have the squad morale right and if we can help out in any way with that we will.”