Johnny Sexton tells how using Ronan O’Gara’s face as a mental target improved his place-kicking

In extracts from his autobiography printed in The Sunday Times, The Leinster and Ireland legend tells of how advice from kicking coach Dave Alred led to improvement in his place-kicking percentages and turned what had been a fractious relationship with his Munster counterpart and rival for the Ireland number 10 shirt to Sexton's advantage.

Relations between the pair had got off to a rocky start with Sexton recalling a derby clash at Thomond Park in 2009 where he had come off the bench at a time when he was struggling for minutes on the pitch.

"The real flare-up started when I went to clear out Lifeimi Mafi after he'd tip-tackled Chris Whitaker," Sexton says.

"I caught him above the eye with a stud by accident and he retaliated. A few fists were thrown.

"Paul O'Connell was quick on the scene, asking Mafi who'd caused the gash above his eye. Suddenly I have Paulie pointing the finger at me and giving me a mouthful. A scary sight. I squared my shoulders at him, but from a safe distance.

"With Paulie there for protection, [Ronan] O'Gara was also in my face: "What the f**k are you doing?" I responded by shaping to punch him, just drawing my fist back. When he winced, I called him a coward. That really set him off.

""Call me a coward? You're nothing! You're useless! A nobody!"

"It soon broke up, but I stored his words in a place where they could fester."

The European Cup semi-final at Croke Park in the same season saw another flare up between the pair and after replacing O'Gara as Ireland's first-choice fly half, Sexton struggled from the tee in the 2010 Six Nations.

But a defeat against Scotland saw a turning point. Having kicked two from four, Sexton was about to be withdrawn but was forced to take a fifth kick before he was taken off.

"It was an important kick for me. A turning point. And that's because of a conversation I had with Dave Alred soon afterwards," Sexton explains.

"Dave asked me how I'd felt standing over the kick. This was the first time I'd been asked a question like that by a coach. I told him that I'd felt angry — angry at being replaced, angry at the way it had been done, angry that every time I took a kick at goal, I had O'Gara glaring down at me from the big screen. Dave reckoned that the anger had worked for me. I'd put some of that anger into the kick and blasted it between the posts, rather than trying to hope the ball over, as I had been doing for a lot of kicks.

"So he came up with the idea of using O'Gara's face to my advantage. Pick your target in the crowd and then transpose his face so that the target is right between his eyes. It was a brilliant bit of coaching — an example of taking negative energy and flipping it into a positive way of thinking.

"My place-kicking percentages improved gradually. They were only so-so against Connacht the following week. The week after that, we were in Limerick, of all places. I missed a couple but got the one that counted near the end, the one that ensured a 1-point victory — Leinster's first win in Limerick in fifteen years.

"Little did Munster realize that I'd used their number 10's mug as my motivation."