O’Gara hoping to banish Blues

RONAN O’GARA has every reason to remember his last big game for Munster against Cardiff.

He was but a raw recruit at the start of an illustrious representative career, and it was a pretty chastening experience.

The statisticians are having a field day this week remembering that Munster have never beaten the Blues at this level. O’Gara was on the Munster side hammered 43-23 in 1997/1998, so he knows the pain.

But statistics have never meant much to O’Gara. He has always been happy to rattle up the points for Munster and Ireland; he’s always happy to see both teams drive on and keep winning.

But eight years down the road, the world-class out-half isn’t about to tremble at the name of Cardiff; neither is he particularly worried about what happened almost a decade ago.

“There is no comparison between the teams back then and now; they were different times, and obviously the teams were completely different. Both of us have moved on a huge amount since then, so we’ve really got to sit down and assess what’s been happening over the last six months or so. There is no point in looking back eight, nine or ten years,” he said.

So far this season, it has been all good news for Munster and Ireland — an away win over Leicester Tigers, a home triumph over Bourgoin and three autumn international victories over South Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islanders.

But while Munster are the Heineken Cup champions, there is no arrogance in the camp.

“It has been great so far, but this won’t necessarily last for the whole season; there’s bound to come a point when you get beaten,” said O’Gara. “You have to be prepared for that and you’ve got to learn how to deal with it.

“You hope to win every game, but in both the Magners League and Heineken Cup you come up against such a high quality of opposition that it’s impossible to assume you’re going to go on winning. You’ve always got to be realistic,” he said.

Yet, O’Gara acknowledged that Munster are in a better position now than at the same stage last season.

“Of course, you get a win away from home in your opening game and it has to be looked upon as a huge bonus. It gives you a type of kick-start you need, and it was a hugely encouraging result.

“But we have now got to move on, we have to forget about the last two matches and treat this month’s activities against Cardiff as another major challenge. It’s important that we have to look at this weekend’s game as a once-off fixture and go on from there,” he said.

Munster, like Leinster, and more than most other European teams, have been hamstrung by not having access to all of their top players during the international season.

But, O’Gara stressed, the team has got used to having to deal with that.

“It’s just the way it is; we finish up with internationals and go back to the provinces. Yes, it does mean there can be teething problems, but it has become a way of life for us and it does get easier,” he said.

If Munster were deemed to have had problems against Connacht last week, O’Gara believes the pressure will intensify this weekend.

He stressed: “I think Cardiff are a very good side; they have some great players, Martyn Williams has been brilliant for them and is an inspirational figure. They have bought in some quality players, they had a great win away to Bourgoin and maybe they disappointed themselves by not performing against Leicester at the Millennium Stadium.

“Now, they’re back on home ground; it’s a tighter ground and there will be a huge atmosphere there. It’s going to be extremely difficult, but we just have to be ready for anything they can throw at us.”

Years on from his first Heineken Cup experience, O’Gara has become Europe’s most prolific scorer. Barring the emergence of another points-scoring machine, his record will stay for a while; indeed it is being embellished by the game.

These days, he is close to robotic and is never less than pleased with anything below an 80% return. He always strives for the perfect score.

“You get to a stage where you expect to kick every kick successfully. I’m not happy to miss kicks, but if I do the important thing is to make sure that it doesn’t affect other aspects of my game,” he said.