The former All Blacks player Israel Dagg was speaking on a radio show in New Zealand and said the following ..
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“Just accept it, mate,” the 66-Test international said on SENZ’s Scotty & Izzy. “Give it a rest.
“Ireland tend to throw a lot of chat out there because they’re winning in between World Cups, but come World Cups – you just don’t. You don’t win it.
“Obviously the comments were pretty harsh and they probably hurt your feelings. But you were retiring.
“People don’t forget when you toured New Zealand and you said some things to our very own All Blacks. They’re going to bottle that up for the big occasions.
“They bottled it up nicely and you guys bottled it over there in the quarter-finals. That’s just the way it goes.”
Stand-in co-host Kimberlee Downs pointed out the hypocrisy involved in the accusations, given Sexton’s history of inappropriate on-field chat, most notably the sideline abuse of referee Jaco Peyper during last year’s European Champions Cup final that led to a three-match ban.
When challenged on the incident in relation to the All Blacks’ ‘no dickheads’ policy Sexton had referred to, Dagg explains that stance was more centred around the team environment and didn’t apply to such scenarios.
“There’s a ‘no dickhead’ policy in the brotherhood – between each other and in the environment, in amongst their own team-mates,” he noted. “It’s not about you. It’s not about the Irish team and not being a dickhead to them or the English team.
“We carry ourselves in a way that we don’t want to sound arrogant. We want to show humility a little bit. But when you fire something, you’ve got to expect a return, and that’s what’s happened here.
“(Ioane) is standing up for Sammy Cane and Brodie Retallick. Pete O’Mahony threw out some chat. Well, you just lost the quarter-final – time to go home.”