Ready for the off

RONAN O'GARA is never far from the headlines whether he's playing for Munster, Ireland or the Lions. Remember the furore when Aussie Duncan McRae tried to punch his head off in that infamous clash down under in 2001?

Nor are you likely to forget the excitement surrounding reports a year or two ago that he was set to leave rugby union and join the Miami Dolphins.

And your eyes surely widened in amazement on opening your newspaper a few weeks ago to discover he had paid around €725,000 for a plot of land on Maryborough Hill in Cork. Trouble is, he himself got just as much of a shock when the story appeared in the property section of the Irish Examiner. He believed the deal was strictly private. His frustration is still raw.