Thursday 23 August 2018 11:08, UK
Ireland's Johnny Sexton says becoming Leinster captain has given him the drive to improve further on his "dream season".
Sexton was a key player as Ireland won the Grand Slam and Leinster secured a Guinness PRO14 and European Cup double, before capping off the campaign with a series win in Australia for his country.
However, the 33-year-old fly-half is in no mood to sit back and reflect on his achievements, especially after being handed his new role.
"The captaincy was probably exactly what I needed," Sexton said. "I want to get back out there, I want to train better, I want to do everything a bit better to lead by example.
"It's been great for me and hopefully it will continue to be like that. I just can't wait to get back now, I am feeling good body-wise and mind."
Leinster kick off their PRO14 season in Wales against Cardiff Blues on August 31 and Sexton expects they will have to work even harder to repeat their title success.
"It was a dream season last year but it was last year and you know from experience you will be judged on your last game," he added.
"You are only a couple of games away from being on the other side of the fence, and we have had a taste of that over three years. We had one good year last year and the other two didn't end as we would have liked.
"We have got to try - I don't think to emulate last year - but get better because some of the squads have signed some really good players and brought in some new coaches. They are all going to get stronger so we have got to get better.
"And we haven't added to the group massively, we have replaced Heasy [Jamie Heaslip] with Joe Tomane and that's it really, we haven't replaced a lot of the guys who have left.
"Straight away we are probably up against it in some ways but we have always relied heavily on our academy system and we will rely heavily on them again."
