Leinster Rugby won the Heineken cup in 2011 in dramatic fashion. They were down 6 – 22 at half time in the final against Northampton Saints, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Then Johnny Sexton did two things: he gave a talk in the dressing room at half-time which, according to the folklore, made all his team mates sit up and get ready for serious action after the restart, and he went out himself in the second half and scored two tries, three conversions, and two penalties, for a total of 22 points, to put Leinster in the lead at the end of the game, with 33 points against Northampton’s 22. In other words, Northampton had no scores at all in the second half.

            Sexton was man of the match on that occasion, but the captain was Brian O’Driscoll. When the Leinster team got home they made a visit to Temple Street children’s hospital to show the young patients the Heineken Cup. The picture below was taken on the occasion. I was moved to comment.