In the estimation of the French media, Jonathan Sexton lost potential friends and alienated people during his time at Racing Metro.
They painted a brutal picture of a surly foreigner who didn't want to be there.
Judging by their output, Sexton's Racing teammates were forever slipping comments about their highly strung fly-half's peccadilloes to the nearest reporter.
With the France-Ireland game here, Sexton returns to the scene of his vilification. It is evident that his treatment at the hands of the press still riles him.
I do think it was a little bit personal considering some of the stuff that was written about me by certain French journalists. I does hurt when it is not true. I don't mind when people criticise my performance because that is black and white. But when they make up stuff about your personality and portray you as I don't think I am, that can hurt.
It probably came from the coach who is probably trying to look after himself a little bit. But it is what it is.
The coach, in question, was one Laurent Labit who poured his heart out on the topic of Sexton's failings as a teammate.
He didn’t always perform for Racing and he knew it. And it irritated him very much.
Jonathan had the tendency to employ a rather forceful manner and use a colourful language in the heat of the moment. Sometimes it bordered on insults. At some moments Jonathan was really uncontrollable.
When things didn’t work as he had hoped, he was hyper sensitive. Several times I had to remind him that there are certain ways of saying things. Jonathan had the tendency to employ a strong manner and a very colourful language in the heat of the action.
Sometimes it was on the verge of insult. At times, Jonathan was really uncontrollable. When we ran plays, if someone forgot his role, he was capable of giving them a bollocking.
No matter what had happened before, he gave them a roasting. Sometimes I tore out my hair. Johnny is someone who is perpetually putting everything in question, and who obliges you to be constantly on alert.
This went to into overdrive ahead of the Ireland-France World Cup clash, with prop Eddy Ben Arous, while admitting that Sexton was the fulcrum of the team, vowing that he would 'hunt him down.'
And a figure from the Racing dressing room, whom Midi Olimpique referred to as 'anonymous' came out with the killer line.
He’s the Zlatan Ibrahimovic of rugby.
When Leinster's exit was officially confirmed in the unfortunate surrounds of... Toulon, the French media wasted no time laying into Sexton, dubbing his two year stint at Metro 'a fiasco'.
They claim he was never able to break out of the Leinster mentality & didn't want to "pass on his knowledge" to his teammates
— gavin mortimer (@gavinmortimer7) December 11, 2015
Sexton's alleged reluctance to pass on any info to his French teammates reminds us of that time (joke in which) an Irishman appeared on Mastermind to answer questions on his specialist subject 'The Easter Rising 1916'.
After answering 'PASS' to the questions, 'Who read out the Proclamation from the steps of the GPO?' and 'Who was in command at Boland's Mill on Grand Canal Dock?', a voice from the audience called out 'That's it Paddy, tell them nothin.'
That kind of nationalistic spirit he should adopt when heading into tomorrow.
