Johnny Sexton reveals advice to Ireland fly halves on dealing with 'toxic' social media comments - Ruck
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Johnny Sexton reveals advice to Ireland fly halves on dealing with ‘toxic’ social media comments

18 February 2026
Tom Sansom

Legendary former Ireland fly half Johnny Sexton, has lifted the lid upon how he used to deal with the ‘toxic’ side of social media. Having been at the helm of the Ireland team for the best part of his 14 years on the test stage, Sexton had to weather the social media storm on plenty of occasions, given his role as the ever reliable linchpin for the men in green.

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However, like any experienced international player with a tenured career, there were times when it did not all go to plan for Sexton, as a torrent of online abuse would often follow behind him. The former captain is now part of Andy Farrell’s coaching staff, and yesterday the Leinster stalwart spoke on the subject of dealing with online hate.

This was made all the more topical, given the heavy online criticisms of Ireland fly halves Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley, and the ugly racist comments that marred the Test debut of lock Edwin Edogbo against Italy last weekend. Speaking at the Ireland High Performance Centre on the edge of Dublin, Sexton said;

“I obviously have experienced social media. Definitely, when it was coming up to big games and around big games, I made sure I didn’t let it filter into my life, into my mind. Because I knew it would have been toxic, even in the good things. There is always someone who has a different opinion.

“So, I knew when to stay away and had all the different [social media] settings, so it was only those close to me that could contact me. That’s probably the best advice I got, and can give to the guys now, get a lot of the noise and distractions out of your life.”

With a staggering 118 caps for Ireland and a further six for the British & Irish Lions, Sexton boasts an on-field resume that very few can match. Sexton falls back on career long advice to help see through the fog, whenever he stumbled upon his virtual critics.

“I got advice myself over the course of my career and that was it; if one of these guys knocked on your door, would you let them in? Why do you let them in through social media. That’s probably the best piece of advice I got.”

Whilst the use of social media settings and managed interactions can filter out the unwanted interactions from the other side of a phone screen, Sexton revealed how the unwanted opinions used to find a way into his life, even when he least expected it.

“I’ve been there. It’s a tough place to be. Sometimes you might block out a lot of it and then you’ll see the back page of a paper or someone will make a comment to you on the street. It comes to you. What happened to me is a couple of times, my parents would say, ‘did you see what your man said about ya?’

“I just said, ‘mum, can you please stop telling me so… it gets in and you have to have ways and you have to have good people around you to cope with it and try and block out as much as you can and concentrate on your performance and your preparation and really narrow your focus.”

As the resident skills and kicking expert upon the Ireland men’s coaching team, Sexton works very closely with the spotlighted fly halves Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley. Despite the overall outcome of a win this past weekend, both number 10s had shortcomings from the boot, which Sexton is happy to chalk up as rare mistakes. Prendergast missed two rather straight-forward conversions from the tee, whilst Crowley kicked a touch-finding kick beyond the try-line, as Ireland pushed for a bonus point finish in Dublin.

“Well, Sam is two from two [conversions] from France.” Sexton acknowledged. “I know he didn’t have a lot of kicks against Italy. He missed a couple of bad ones. It’s a one-off. Could they better, do they want to be better? I’m sure. Like every kicker, you never have it fully nailed. That’s the toughest thing about kicking. It will hit you when you least expect it. 

“Sam, he had the ball on a string for 95 per cent of last week and probably just rushed the first one and that probably rattled him a little bit. We’ve all been there. It’s just important that he learns from it and doesn’t let it happen again.”

Despite how Crowley and Prendergast have steadily become established Test match rugby players, the fly half pair are still in the relative infancy of their on-field careers. Crowley is 26-years-old, three years the senior of his positional rival. Sexton expressed how when he was Prendergasts’ age, he was still cutting his teeth with St Mary’s College in the All Ireland League, never mind making a Test match debut.

“It’s their journey, it doesn’t have to be the same as mine. I do try to explain to them when you’re starting off, you have to learn some hard lessons. I was learning lessons playing AIL [All Ireland League] at 22 and 23, I got my first cap at 24. I still had many bad games and many moments where I wish I could do it all over again, but that was part of my journey. They [Crowley & Prendergast] have to look at it as moments to learn and get to where they want to go.”

Ireland head over to London for their third round match of the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations, as Andy Farrell’s side take on an England team that have recently been brought back down to earth. England were riding a tidal wave of momentum, as 12 consecutive Test wins saw Steve Borthwick’s side triumph over the likes of New Zealand, France and Australia across a breathtaking run of form.

However, England came undone this past Saturday, as a stunning Scotland side bounced back from their own personal dip in form, to claim a 31-20 victory and get their hands back on the Calcutta Cup. England back Tommy Freeman recently revealed how he struggled with the mental load of the past Summer’s Lions tour, as 12 of his fellow countryman also donned the famous red jersey.

Ireland contributed a record 16 players, head coach Andy Farrell and an assortment of coaching staff for the tour across the land down under. Sexton too was apart of the 2025 coaching group, yet the 2013 & 2017 tourist does not think that any drops in Irish performance is due to their time upon the Lions tour.

“We’ve got one of the best in the business in [Head of Athletic Performance] Aled Walters, where he takes all that into account. It’s the first time we’ve had to play, I suppose, Six Nations three weeks in a row. We did it in November [Autumn Nations Series], knowing that it was going to be like this in Six Nations.

“So how we manage the week will be key, but the bodies came out of it pretty well from Saturday, even though it was a pretty high-intensity game with lots of ball and play, a lot of collisions. So I think we’ll be good to go and make sure we manage the week properly.”

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