Sexton on fringes as long goodbye begins with final Twickenham win | Jonathan Liew

The Ireland captain and talisman left his mark eventually despite being a peripheral figure for much of the game

As the final whistle blew on a bruising and barnstorming and brilliant evening’s entertainment, Ireland’s players wreathed each other in hugs: their ordeal finally at an end, their conquest complete. Johnny Sexton, their captain and talisman, was not among them. He had been withdrawn with a few seconds left on the clock, presumably to grant him one last valedictory ovation from a Twickenham crowd that may never see him in action again.

This is the sort of treatment Sexton should probably start getting used to over the coming months. Earlier in the week he finally ended months of speculation by revealing that his latest contract would be his last: a retirement announced 18 months in advance, taking him as far as the next World Cup in France. If the announcement itself was little surprise given that Sexton will be 38 by then and has already been fending off questions about his departure for half a decade, then there was also a certain curiosity to its timing.

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