But after Newport Gwent Dragons' Taulupe Faletau brought Wales back from the brink, Sexton and Rhys Priestland traded late penalties to keep the scores even.
And despite surrendering the 13-point lead on home soil, Stander believes it was a good start for the men in green regardless.
"It's points on the board, so we'll take that and move forward," he told RTE Television. "Both teams came out and played great rugby and I'm proud of the boys to hold on at the end.
"When we had the ball we did some great work, in the first-half we were flying, the second-half we slipped a bit but it was a good effort.
"It's a good start and we can build on that."
Ulster's Rory Best was leading Ireland for the first time as full-time captain, and was impressed with the way his side came back into the contest despite ultimately losing a three-point lead late on.
He said: "A draw is a hard result to put into words. We're happy we didn't lose the game and it took character to come back after going behind for the first time with five minutes on the clock.
"There are a lot of positives and we haven't lost, but we'll take a quick look back on this to make sure we go forward.
"We can get a lot better but there are a lot of things to be proud of."
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