O’Gara craves consistency

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

IT’S “last chance saloon” time for Ireland against the All Blacks in Hamilton this weekend, according to Ronan O’Gara.

The Munster fly-half entered the fray in the 52nd minute of Saturday’s frantic contest in Christchurch for the injured Gordon D’Arcy and formed the experimental 10-12 axis with Jonathan Sexton once more — the same combination that finished the epic victory over Australia at last year’s World Cup.

It seemed all set up for a typical O’Gara intervention in the final 10 minutes of a brutal match in Canterbury with the scores locked at 19 points apiece. O’Gara’s end-game heroics for his province against Northampton and Castres could have proved the perfect preparation for a final snatch and grab for Declan Kidney’s men.

Had Nigel Owens not penalised a clearly dominant Irish scrum inside the All Blacks half with six minutes remaining, O’Gara may well have got the chance to make history once more.

Alas, it was Dan Carter who dropped in the pocket and stole the Sunday morning headlines, and the 35-year-old admitted that he would have relished the opportunity to drop-kick Ireland to victory.

“I would have taken that strike too,” said O’Gara.

“I was visualising it, any break in play I was trying to pick a spot… and I was saying ‘is this going to happen?”

“It is particularly frustrating when you don’t get the (opportunity), I can live with having a go and missing.

“It’s the not getting a go that is very frustrating.”

O’Gara felt last weekend’s showing was a merely the starting point and his teammates must be prepared for what should be a massively improved New Zealand outfit for the third instalment of this series.

“We’ve shown we’re competitive and I think we’ll have to be prepared for a New Zealand backlash,” he said.

“I think in fairness to them (New Zealand), they probably felt they’d beat us in second gear and they started the game in second gear.

“I think they’ll be smarting now this week and they’ll probably start in fourth gear.”

Steve Hansen’s troops were below-par but many of the Kiwis’ problems must be attributed to a solid and aggressive Irish effort.

In last Saturday’s after match press conference, Hansen stated that he felt Ireland had performed at their optimum for the duration of the night while his team played well below their standards.

“To be fair now, I wouldn’t have a problem with that,” said O’Gara on Hansen’s summation of the contest.

“I’ve been there myself. It is a fair enough comment after the game. I mean, you look at their (New Zealand) body language.

“An awful lot of them were fist-pumping when Carter dropped the goal so it showed what it meant to them.

“I think he (Hansen) was probably complimentary in terms that he felt Ireland did play well. And Ireland did play well compared to where they were coming from, and that New Zealand would improve too. So I don’t think there’s any issue there.”

An Irish team under the guidance of then-coach Eddie O’Sullivan pushed New Zealand all the way at Saturday’s venue back in 2006.

O’Gara, Brian O’Driscoll and Donncha O’Callaghan are the only survivors form that helter-skelter contest in Hamilton when a late Troy Flavell touchdown settled a enthralling contest.

“We should have been beaten them,” said O’Gara on that 34-23 loss in Hamilton six years ago.

“They will only respect you when you beat them, that is fair enough… that’s life isn’t it?”

The overwhelming feeling is that Kidney’s men may have blown their best chance, however they have one final shot at the best team in the world at Waikato Stadium.

“I think the pleasing thing about last weekend is we put ourselves in the position to win, but we didn’t get over the line,” said O’Gara.

“You can’t be fluctuating between from Eden Park to Christchurch to a mediocre performance.

“You can’t have fluctuations like that. You’ve got to have your values and your standards and keep hitting them.

“To compliment New Zealand, they shouldn’t have won at the weekend but they were down a man, they were under the cosh, but they won the game.”

He’s been number one for Munster since the turn of the millennium and has been a central figure in Ireland’s fortunes for the best part of a decade so it must be hugely frustrating for O’Gara to be playing a reserve role for his country in recent times.

The Irish test centurion usurped his Leinster rival in the latter stages of Ireland’s World Cup campaign although Sexton, on the back of his provinces Heineken Cup success, has been Kidney’s go-to man in 2012.

“I’ve accepted that in terms of what’s going on,” said the veteran fly-half on his second-choice status in the Irish set-up.

“The World Cup was where I needed to prove a point, getting back in for that and that couldn’t have gone much better.”

O’Gara is one of the last of the golden generation still plying his trade down Munster way. Luminaries such as David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Jerry Flannery and John Hayes have all hung up their boots in the past year.

The talk of retirement grow louder with every passing season, but O’Gara is not giving up the ghost just yet.

“The day I don’t think I can be number one will be the day I’ll walk,” he stated emphatically. I’ll be competitive until the end.”

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