Ireland’s Johnny Sexton wants best display of season to seal historic win over All Blacks
The 37-year-old is poised to move level with Paul O’Connell as his country’s fifth most-capped player
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Captain Johnny Sexton says Ireland intend to sign off for the summer with their “best performance of the season” as they seek to claim a landmark series win in New Zealand.
The Irish rewrote the record books with last weekend’s maiden away victory over the All Blacks and are now aiming to make more history on Saturday in Wellington.
Sexton celebrated his 37th birthday on Monday and is poised to move level with Paul O’Connell as his country’s fifth most-capped player by making his 108th Test appearance.
Ireland will leapfrog France to the top of the world rankings with a win at Sky Stadium, albeit the Kiwis have not lost a home series since 1994.
“The group are in good spirits, gearing up for a massive game,” said the fly-half. “We’re really looking forward to it.
“It’s a great place to be; creating a little bit of history last week but now we’ve got a chance to do something a little bit bigger and a little bit more special.
“All the boys are just concentrating on getting our best performance of the season out there and see where that leaves us.”
Ireland won 23-12 in Dunedin last Saturday to cancel out a 42-19 drubbing in the Auckland opener.
Sexton, who needs six more points to reach 1,000 in the green jersey, hopes to lead another performance worthy of making the country proud.
“It’s something we speak about all the time, the people back home watching, whether it’s family, friends,” he said.
“But also the whole country will be up tomorrow morning watching and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Hopefully we can do them proud.”