New Zealand back Rieko Ioane has hit back at former Ireland captain Johnny Sexton over his accusation the All Blacks player called him a “c—” by mocking him in a social media post.
The bad blood between Sexton and Ioane took another twist on Thursday, with Ioane posting an image of the pair on his Instagram account along with the song ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries, which became Ireland’s unofficial anthem at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The clip appeared to imply that Ioane was inside Sexton’s head with the lyrics “in your head, in your head” featuring prominently. Ioane also included a joker emoji above Ioane and a home emoji below Sexton, referencing that New Zealand had just knocked Ireland out of the tournament.
The public spat between the two started when Sexton revealed what happened in the moments after Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of the All Blacks – Sexton’s final match before retirement.
Writing in his book, Sexton said that Ioane told him: “Don’t miss your flight tomorrow. Enjoy your retirement, you c—.” Sexton responded by calling Ioane “a fake-humble f—–”, adding in an excerpt published by the Sunday Times: “It doesn’t look great, me having a go at one of them just after we’ve lost. But I can’t be expected to ignore that.”
Ireland accused of ‘bottling’ World Cup
Sexton’s book excerpt caused a stir in New Zealand this week, with the former All Blacks wing Israel Dagg telling Sexton to “give it a rest” while bringing up comments made by Peter O’Mahony during Ireland’s 2-1 series win over New Zealand the previous year.
“Just accept it, mate. Give it a rest,” Dagg said during a radio appearance. “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.
“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.”
O’Mahony had famously told Cane during Ireland’s Test victory in New Zealand “you’re a s— Richie McCaw”, with Retallick returning the compliment in Paris last year when he told O’Mahony: “Oi Peter, four more years, you f—wit.”
Ioane and the All Blacks are due in Dublin on November 8 to face the Six Nations champions, in the first meeting between the two sides since the quarter-final in Paris.
Source Agencies
