The possibility is that Johnny Sexton hadn’t seen the video footage.
It’s on YouTube, of Richard Hibbard involved in a dust-up with two South African forwards. The odds are hopelessly stacked against the then young Welshman as he grapples with the giant CJ van der Linde, who has support from his fellow shaven-headed pal Guthro Steenkamp.
A 24-year-old Hibbard, who had yet to start a game for Wales, takes the pair of them on, eventually crashing off the pitch into the advertising boards.
“He didn’t take a backward step, did he?” says the TV commentator seconds later, as a yellow-carded Welsh replacement hooker sits on the sidelines, visibly seething.
Not a man to take liberties with, then.
Fast-forward to the Lions training ground in Sydney in 2013 ahead of the third and final Test of the series, when a mistake from Hibbard resulted in Sexton directing searing abuse his way, like an intolerant schoolteacher telling off a recalcitrant child.
In that moment, two worlds looked set to collide as Sexton, a perfectionist product of St Mary’s College in Dublin, confident and officer class to his boot laces, looked across at Hibbard, of Glan Afan Comprehensive School in Port Talbot, tough, uncompromising and not known for tolerating such public scaldings without demur.
In his excellent autobiography, Bomb, Adam Jones recalls of Sexton’s decision to rollock Hibbard: “It takes a brave man to do that, because Hibbs has a short fuse and could easily have knocked him out.
“I could see his eyes narrowing into a death stare, which is a sure-fire sign that the red mist is descending.”
And in a podcast on RugbyPass, Jamie Roberts says: “I don’t think Hibbs had ever experienced a player speaking to him in training like Johnny did.
“Look, Johnny’s a competitive bloke.
“But it felt quite personal towards Hibbs.
“I think Hibbs messed up one of the plays.
“We are talking about training three days before a Lions Test match, so the session’s quite important.
“Johnny spoke to Hibbs like...
“The evils Hibbs gave Johnny — it’s hard to put into words.”
For a second or two, time seemed to stand still.
A single intemperate swipe of a Welsh fist could have reduced the Irish population by one.
But it didn’t happen.
Against the odds, Hibbard pulled himself back from the edge. It would be wrong to say a Zen-like calm came over him, but he somehow managed to keep his cool.
“Thankfully, he wound himself back in and realised that planting one on the star fly-half probably wasn’t the right course of action,” writes Jones.
“Johnny, for his part, realised that he was poking an angry bear, and backed down.”
Roberts confirms: “It wasn’t a scrap.
“Luckily it didn’t make it to a scrap — I can’t imagine Johnny’s the best streetfighter.”
Roberts continues: “Fair play to Hibbs, he did his utmost just to grit his teeth and hold his nerve, but if he had his time again I think he’d probably lose it.
“But it was such a funny moment because all the other lads were just, like: ‘Wow!’
“It was awesome.
“But we won the Test match.
“I’ve played with Johnny at Racing and know what he’s like.
“He’s spoken to me on many occasions like that as well.
“He’s won quite a bit in his career, so it obviously works.
“We all have our own little different ways of pushing people’s buttons, don’t we?”
Sometimes, the wrong button can be pushed, though.
Eight years ago, that came close to happening in Sydney.
Hibbard had cause to feel aggrieved at his treatment.
Sexton had a fortunate escape.
How the episode ended as it did remains perplexing to this day.
