Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Johnny Sexton breaks silence on his HIA controversy

By PA
Jonathan Sexton during the Ireland rugby squad captain's run at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Ireland captain Johnny Sexton insisted he is “fine” and passed head injury tests “with flying colours” as he allayed concerns about his selection for Saturday’s second Test against New Zealand.

ADVERTISEMENT

The influential fly-half failed an on-pitch assessment during the first half of last weekend’s 42-19 first-Test defeat by the All Blacks and left the field without returning.

Head coach Andy Farrell’s decision to pick his skipper for the next instalment of the series in Dunedin has been questioned in some quarters, including by safety campaign group Progressive Rugby.

Video Spacer

Bryan Habana, Jonny Hill’s hair pulling and South Africa’s revenge | RugbyPass Offload | Ep 41

Video Spacer

Bryan Habana, Jonny Hill’s hair pulling and South Africa’s revenge | RugbyPass Offload | Ep 41

Yet Sexton, who expected to come back on in Auckland having sustained the knock by slipping into New Zealand captain Sam Cane, played down fears surrounding his physical condition.

“You go off for an HIA (head injury assessment) and you don’t come back on, everyone presumes that’s a concussion, but it’s not,” he said, according to the Irish Times.

“It’s just, if there is a suspected (concussion) or if there is any doubt about the player.

“And obviously the independent doctor felt for whatever reason, my reaction to the knock or whether it was one or two little things in the test, but anyway, that’s history now.

“I went off for tests expecting to come back on and wasn’t allowed, which is fair enough, that’s what it’s there for.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’s there to protect players if there is a suspected concussion, that they are kept off, and that’s what happened with the independent doctor.

“As frustrating as it was for me at the time, it’s just life. Yeah, move on, did all the tests and obviously passed all of them with flying colours. Looking forward to this week.”

Related

Sexton, who turns 37 on Monday, has battled with head knocks and the perception around them throughout his career.

World Rugby protocols state that an in-game head injury assessment – known as the HIA One test – advises if a player should sit out the rest of the match as a precaution but does not confirm a concussion.

ADVERTISEMENT

If, as in the case of Sexton, a player goes on to pass second and third assessments in the 36 hours after the fixture, they are deemed not to have a confirmed concussion and therefore available for the next game.

Progressive Rugby said the governing body’s head injury assessment (HIA) process is “being exposed” as it made reference to Ireland prop Jeremy Loughman and that the “only option must be to err on the side of caution”.

Despite staggering following a collision during his country’s warm-up match against the Maori All Blacks last week, Munster player Loughman was initially permitted to return to play before being withdrawn at half-time.

“You saw the one during the Maori game, obviously a totally different thing, and that has been criticised as well,” continued Sexton.

“So, it’s very hard to win in this scenario. But everyone just tries to do their best by the players.

“We have got a great medical staff and set-up here. I think they expected to see me back on but look, we passed all the tests and we are ready to go this week now thankfully.”

Ireland must win at Forsyth Barr Stadium this weekend to remain alive in the series after fading from a promising start to lose an error-strewn opener.

Sexton believes a first victory on New Zealand soil would put Ireland in pole position going into the potential decider in Wellington.

Related

“If you can win the second Test, the momentum always swings to you and you feel like you’ve got the ascendancy,” he said.

“But we haven’t really spoken about the series. It’s really just getting back on the horse and making sure we put our best foot forward.

“We were happy with some of the things we did last week, but they are pretty ruthless, aren’t they? We found out the hard way last Saturday.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 24 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

305 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat
Search