Trailing 22-6 at halftime with their scrum in tatters they looked dead and buried against a Northampton team who left the Millennium Stadium pitch walking on air.
However, flyhalf Sexton, growing in stature with every game he plays, took centre stage in the changing room to exhort his team mates to turn the game around then backed his brave words with even braver deeds.
Within 15 minutes he had scored two livewire tries and, after Nathan Hines added a third, completed a kicking haul of 18 points to give Leinster a 33-22 lead after 66 minutes that they never looked like relinquishing.
“There were some inspirational words from Jonathan at half- time which picked us up — he was a man possessed,” centre Brian O’Driscoll said of his 25-year-old Irish international team mate.
“There are a lot of leaders in that dressing room but I did have a few words at halftime,” Sexton added. “I said that we see in sport that teams can come back.
“I felt it was gone when they got that third try just before halftime and all we had done to get here suddenly looked to be counting for nothing.
“But we didn’t panic, when a team gets some momentum like that it’s hard to stop, though I never thought it would go as well as it did.”
