IT WAS TEN TO THE DOZEN

Sexton reveals half-time team talk was frantic as he tried to help Farrell get message across

- BY DEREK FOLEY

BEFORE Andy Farrell sent his 12 men out for the second-half against South Africa last Saturday, there was no textbook to be consulted about the situation.

If the received wisdom about playing with 14 or 13 men is to kick long and try to find grass, this wasn't an option for 12.

Giving the ball back to 15 men to run back would be asking for trouble, so the halftime had to be about clear thinking, invention and delivering those messages in a coherent way.

“There was lots of it to be gotten across,” said assistant coach Johnny Sexton of something he can grin about now but didn't seem that funny at the time.

“So it was more like coming up with a plan for kickoff, and then how are we going to chase it? Who do we hold back? How many are we going to put on the scrum? How many do we put in the lineout?