Jerry Sexton embraces teammate Greg Bateman after Exeter Chiefs\u2019 LV= Cup win over Gloucester at Sandy Park. Photograph: Dan Mullan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The second row made his debut against Gloucester having spent time in France<\/p>\n
Jerry Sexton has embarked on a road less travelled in pursuing a career in professional rugby. The youngest of a clan that includes Jerry Sexton embraces teammate Greg Bateman after Exeter Chiefs\u2019 LV= Cup win over Gloucester at Sandy Park. Photograph: Dan Mullan\/Getty Images The second row made his debut against Gloucester having spent time in France Jerry Sexton has embarked on a road less travelled in pursuing a career in professional rugby. The youngest of a clan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6502,11312,8651,15857,15860,3959,6204,15858,5745,15859],"class_list":["post-79541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ulster-rugby","tag-at","tag-chiefs","tag-exeter","tag-jerry","tag-route","tag-rugby","tag-senior","tag-sextons","tag-to","tag-unusual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79543,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79541\/revisions\/79543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIreland outhalf, Johnny, St Mary\u2019s College centre Mark, and sister Gillian, the 6\u20195\u201d, 21-year-old, has already gathered a few stickers for his suitcase, despite his tender years.
\nThe journey has taken him from the classrooms and pitches of St Mary\u2019s College in Rathmines, initially to the massive physicality of French ProD2 club rugby in first Auch, and then briefly, Mont de Marsan, where the raw aggression and brutal collisions of the forward play offered a throwback to a bygone era of elite French club rugby, to latterly, the south coast of England.
\nSexton played for Auch\u2019s Espoirs (under-23 side), spending a great deal of time in the gym as the club looked to build bulk on his frame. When his one-year contract was up he moved to Mont de Marsan but had the emotional maturity to recognise that he wasn\u2019t happy. He explained: \u201cI realised after a couple of weeks it wasn\u2019t for me. I asked to leave and the club were very good about it. They understood.\u201d……. see the full story on >> http:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/rugby\/jerry-sexton-s-unusual-route-to-senior-rugby-at-exeter-chiefs-1.2059420<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"