Ronan O'Gara: The torment, the thrill and the private thoughts on a team bus
Ronan O'Gara gets off the Ireland team bus during the 2009 Six Nations Picture: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
As you are reading this, the safest bet is I am on a bus south from La Rochelle to Agen. Dressing rooms and bus trips bookend our careers like breakfast and supper. Adrenaline courses through dressing rooms, emotions flare and then flatline on the bus ride home. Everyone’s wasted.
The ride to a game and the trip back home from it might be the same road but they’re different worlds. I’ve felt like Maximus returning to Rome after some conquests with Munster. But I’ve been on bus journeys home that I hoped would never end. That they kept going until the pain disappeared from the rearview mirror.
