Lions tour diary: Ahead of Argentina clash a relaxed Johnny Sexton, Dostoevsky and questions of identity

Monday

Johnny Sexton’s a crowd puller. Upstairs in the University Club in UCD, the phalanx of cameras and mics are tested and checked and when he walks in, the room instinctively leans forward.

Outside, students sit around on the grass eating braised sesame tofu and ramen, taking the cool air from the Main Lake at O’Reilly Hall, unaware that Lions coach Sexton, in his official Lions lounge attire, is kicking off the tour.

Scotland lock Scott Cummings is also here along with Ben Earl, the England backrow. Earl is into Fyodor Dostoevsky, a colleague whispers. A frenzied search on Google for Earl and Rugby and USSR suggests it might be true.

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Sexton, the coach, smiles a little more and appears less tense than Sexton the player, and especially Sexton the captain. He says rugby suits him more than Sexton the businessman. He is here, he says, because Andy Farrell asked him. For the former Irish outhalf and captain, he’s happy that tracksuits and mentoring have replaced Ardagh’s bottle and can mountain.

Assistant coach Jonathan Sexton with head coach Andy Farrell. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho

“It’s hard to contribute because you’re sitting in a room with people that have 20 years, 30 years’ experience in the industry. Whereas that’s me now – I’ve had 20 years’ experience [in rugby],” he says.

Nobody dares ask Earl about Dostoevsky, terrified he might talk about morality, freedom, faith, and the human condition through the lens of existentialism.

Tuesday

Which one is Felipe Contepomi, a young girl asks no one in particular.

The sun is blazing down on the balcony at Old Belvedere and the Argentinian players look iridescent perspiring in the heat haze.

At their base in the Radisson Hotel, they climbed out of the plunge pools set up in the garden and ambled in their budgie smugglers back into the hotel. Go Los Pumas!

Today though, the blue sky and warmth spark off a brief personal reminiscence of glorious Nice and the last Rugby World Cup. Three weeks of belly up in the Med, occasionally drifting out to sea from La Promenade des Anglais, watching orange EasyJets low in the sky, wheels down coming into land.

There is a drone or two in the air at Belvo, one of them peering directly down on a scrum on the far pitch.

An answer comes back to the girl. Felipe’s the one in the peaked cap. Small groups of people sprawled around the side of the pitch have turned up to watch.

Inside, the former Irish Lion Ollie Campbell is the image you cannot fail to see turning from the bar to walk down the stairs. An eight-year Irish career but just 22 caps. Two Lions Tours, the first in 1980 to South Africa and in 1983 again to New Zealand. Seven Lions caps there.

Former Ireland player Ollie Campbell. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho

This is, after all, Ollie Campbell Park and the picture is of Campbell in that famous kicking pose. Are there any other images of him not of the follow through after the kick, the boot of his straight right leg at shoulder height and the long striations of muscle and tendon.

The drones come in to land as the players stream off the pitch. Felipe, now 47 years old, picks up his little boy and grabs a ball. It is 20 years since he was top scorer with Leinster in both the 2005–06 Celtic League and the Heineken Cup.

It is seven years since he was appointed as the new backs coach for Leinster, succeeding Girvan Dempsey, who moved to Bath.

A colleague points towards the entrance to the grounds at a house which backs on to the club car park. Matt Doyle used to live there, he says of the likable Irish American tennis player who sadly died less than five months ago.

There’s history in these grounds. The takeaway is some Matt, but more Felipe kicking ball with a little boy in the warm summer wind.

Wednesday

Team announcement day in Aviva Stadium. Andy Farrell and Maro Itoje walk in through the door to the media auditorium, the Lions coach in blue, the team captain in red.

Farrell holds a fixed semi-smile that gives the Rugby League Man of Steel an amiable, big softie head. The Lion’s secondrow, Itoje, looks like a mature student who could be finishing his PhD. Note to self: How looks can deceive.

The pair sit at the top table. 32 journalists, 10 cameras, nine microphones. Itoje sits on Farrell’s right. The table is covered in Lions livery with large lettering of the tour message. There is always a tour message, an aspiration. ‘WE GO BEYOND.’

Maro Itoje and head coach Andy Farrell. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho

“It’s the best of the best,” says Tommy Freeman of the squad during his interview. “It’s the best of the best,” says Tadhg Beirne when he arrives.

“We want to be the best version of ourselves,” says Farrell at the top table. “We want to be the best version of ourselves,” says Beirne.

Off-pitch the Lions are on message. That or they have been listening to double Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington from last year’s Olympic Games.

“Everyone wants a gold medal, but I just want to be the best version of me,” said Kellie.

Up in troubled Ballymena, the Lions team news may have been triggering for former captain Willie John McBride, who travelled on five Tours during the 1960s and 1970s and was “bothered” by the non-native players Farrell selected in his squad.

Bundee Aki, the only Irish back to play Argentina was born in New Zealand. Tighthead Prop Finlay Bealham and replacement winger Mack Hansen were both born in Australia. Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman and Scotland winger Duhan van der Merwe were born in South Africa.

Scotland centre Sione Tuipulotu is Australian-born while England fullback Marcus Smith was born in the Philippines. James Lowe, Jamison Gibson-Park, the list goes on.

The 1974 Lions trip had “one in, all in” on the call of “99″ from captain Willie John resulting in the battle of Boet Erasmus Stadium. It is now 2025 and Willie John has been metaphorically 99ed for his views. Note to self: what goes around comes around.

Thursday

Burgundy Thursday. The Aviva pitch is laid out perfectly like a Michelin star restaurant table.

At the bottom of the stepladders by the pitch side hoarding sit four rugby balls on a large white towel. On top of each ball four smaller white folded towels have been carefully placed. All sit beside a stack of yellow bibs and more rugby balls organised in a row.

Early signs of OCD at the first Lions captain’s run to take place on a Dublin surface.

Burgundy tackle bags bearing the Lions logo of the four unions are gathered up by Simon Easterby and taken to the goal area. Former England scrumhalf Richard Wigglesworth and Andrew Goodman (Beasterby, Wig and Goody) space them for the players’ arrival.

A terribly desolate place, this stadium when devoid of bodies. The echoes tell you nobody is here, an empty cathedral. But there is something about Aviva’s size from the pitch that compels you to stand and aimlessly gaze up to the terraced seating. That is existential.

BIL the mascot. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho

Then the players break out of the tunnel for “The Captain’s Run”, a quaint exercise where accredited journalists stand at the side of the pitch for 15 minutes watching unusual things take place like Garry Ringrose deliberately throwing a pass to Tom Curry, or Henry Pollock breaking from the group with a four-foot cuddly lion called BIL (British and Irish Lion) and chucking him on a table at the side of the pitch.

The England flanker is the youngest and responsible for BIL’s safekeeping.

“This is basically your new girlfriend,” captain Itoje told Pollock. Just what a 20-year-old wants to hear. Itoje knows. He was BIL’s former boyfriend as the youngest player on the 2017 tour.

On the pitch injury-hit Irish prop Tadhg Furlong is doing his twisting runs from under the posts. Lovely hurling. James Ryan appears to be sitting it out and no sign of Jamison Gibson-Park.

The vibe is upbeat, something like “WE GO BEYOND”. All that’s missing is Joe Schmidt’s ghost rising from the West Stand.

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