There will also be a determination to learn one of the most recent leadership lessons that came in the fallout from the World Cup disappointment, when Best appeared to lament the inability of the senior players to adequately drive the Ireland bus more effectively.

That was construed as a criticism of Joe Schmidt’s coaching style but Sexton saw those comments and the issue itself differently.

“I spoke to Rory about that and I think an element of that was him trying to put it on himself, him trying to say that he maybe got a little bit wrong,” Sexton said during yesterday’s 2020 Guinness Six Nations launch in London’s docklands.

“We spoke about that, we wanted to be more... not that it wasn’t player-driven in the past but that we wanted it to be even more player-driven.

“That’s bring driven by Faz (Farrell), he wants us to do it together, for the team to be accountable to each other and very much we do something similar in Leinster where the leadership group have a strong voice with the coaches.

“We had a strong voice before but I think those comments probably got blown out of proportion with the IRFU review at the same time and it all blew up.

What I think he was trying to do there was say the leadership group needed to be better and he needed to do more. I know it got pointed at Joe but that wasn’t the intention of Rory, I don’t think.

Sexton’s will be a captaincy starting out on a short-term basis for both him and Farrell, taken from one campaign to the next.

Yet, as far as the player is concerned, that will not mean anything but total commitment to the cause and to further improvement.

A natural leader from fly-half, Sexton has been working on his captaincy skills since taking over the reins as Leinster skipper from Isa Nacewa at the start of last season.

“I’ve tried to get better. Leadership is the same as any other part of my game, I’ve had to get better over the years. I’ve had to change, I’ve had to adapt to being an older guy in the squad. I’ve still got that drive in me but how I portray that to other people is more important than it was before.

“I’ve had to get better and change and I hope I’ve done that, I’ve learned some good lessons with Leinster over three seasons when I started having captaincy responsibilities with Isa and then after Isa.

“I learned a lot off the captains I played under and I’ll try to take bits off them but it’s important I’m myself. You’ve got to try to be true to yourself and that’s what I’ll try to do but I will try to get better. I’ll try to do that with every part of my game until I retire.”

When that day comes continues to fascinate the Irish rugby public with Sexton’s passion for improvement matched only by his desire for longevity.

The 2021 Lions tour to South Africa is an initial target but he has not ruled out playing beyond his 36th birthday.

“I’ve talked about how I want to play as long as I can because I love what I do.

“I wouldn’t change it for anything, maybe for being a golfer but other than that, I love being in the sport, I love everything that goes with it and I want to play for as long as possible.

“But you can be 24, sat here and wanting to play until you’re 35 or 36 but you could be finished tomorrow, you don’t know, so there’s no point in me continuing to talk about it, I’ve just got to enjoy this Six Nations campaign.

“I’m here next year once injury doesn’t stop me and I’ll just continue to build season on season and try to produce the goods, keep the mind good and body good and I don’t see why not. But there are other people who have a lot to do with it as well.

“But the day that guys in the game that I respect say ‘look, I think you’ve had enough’ I’ll listen and I’ll go.

“I’ll go kicking and screaming but I’ll go. A lot has to happen.”

Experience has taught Sexton to take the rough with the smooth, to treat success and failure as equal impostors. Which is why he is not getting too carried away by his positive rebound from the World Cup quarter-final exit.

“It’s hard because the real amends will be made in four years’ time. Whether you’re there or not is another thing. It could have been a lot of our last World Cups, but you get to the stage where you know a sporting career has ups and downs.

You never have all successes, you just learn that these bumps come, and sometimes they come along when you least expect them or you’re when you are in your best form or your best shape, and suddenly things just don’t go to plan.

“And it’s just knowing that, knowing it’s part of the journey and it’s sort of easier to accept then and move on. But it’s not easy, there’s plenty of nights I lay awake, going, ‘What just happened? What went wrong? How did it go wrong?’.

“And you mull over these things for ages, and I’ve been lucky that I had some good chats with Faz, with Stuart when I got back to Leinster and he had some good experience from being with England in 2015, and he kinda put everything into context for us.

“So it’s been a good learning curve, even though you don’t want it to be.”