Robinson: O’Gara can sting Wasps
After Munster had unconvincingly put his Edinburgh side to the sword at Musgrave Park on Saturday night, Robinson paid a huge tribute to the Munster out-half.
“From what I can gather, he had a pretty indifferent World Cup and seemed to be the centre of controversy throughout the tournament. He put all that stuff behind him in this game, and he was clearly the difference between the teams.
“He punished us at every turn; his handling, distribution, kicking from hand and at goal was just about perfect. There’s no team can compete with that, and Wasps should be wide awake and aware of what they have to contend with. OK, so he didn’t play well in the World Cup for whatever reason, but Ireland didn’t play well as a team.
“This is a different situation; he’s back in a different colour jersey and he certainly impressed me. His performance should be noted and accepted for what it was — absolutely brilliant.”
Which was rather more than Munster could muster in this final dress rehearsal for the Heineken Cup.
Coach Declan Kidney saw it for what it was. Not in the least bit surprised at the individual performance of O’Gara, Kidney observed: “That’s Ronan for you; he’s a quality player capable of playing like that. It’s good to have him home; nobody will be eulogising about him, but it’s something we’ve come to expect of him. We’ve never done this individual thing in Munster because we look on every game as a team effort; Ronan would be the last one to want to have that limelight, but his contribution to this particular result was massive.”
Edinburgh will be satisfied that they nearly spoiled the party en route to a well deserved bonus point. Under the inspired leadership of Alistair Hogg, the Edinburgh pack managed to overcome their line out deficiencies by competing vigorously (albeit illegally at times) for every scrap of possession on the deck. They even managed to overcome the fact that they had two players yellow carded.
Still, if O’Gara was the worthy man-of-the-match, Kidney will be encouraged by the display of Mick O’Driscoll in the second row, not least because captain Paul O’Connell seems certain to miss the Heineken Cup opener through injury.
O’Driscoll, often under-appreciated, has been a revelation for Munster this season. He’s not likely to be found wanting against Wasps.
Peter Stringer, in his second game as Munster captain, smiled about his 100% record for the province with the armband but he’d prefer to be handing it back to a fit-again O’Connell.
“We will have to wait and see what happens on the injury front. I was just relieved to get this game over and for us to take the points. Edinburgh are a good side; they’re notoriously difficult to beat and the win gives us the lift up the table we needed. We’re not worried to have not got a bonus point; a win of any type was always our primary objective.
“There are aspects we have to work on, but there are always things that must be worked on after each individual game. There’s no such thing as the perfect performance, so we will just look positively at the positives and work on the negatives before the Wasps game.”
Munster were almost always in control of this match, at least on the scoreboard. O’Gara kicked them into an early lead with a 50 metre penalty only to be pegged back by David Blair in 18 minutes.
The Munster out-half kicked another after 22 minutes before Blair kicked his second penalty two minutes later.
O’Gara launched a trademark angled kick for Denis Leamy to pick up and score the opening try in the 26th minute and he then converted for a 13-6 lead only for Edinburgh to come storming back with a try from Allan Jacobsen and a Blair conversion.
Blair gave Edinburgh a shock lead for the first time midway through the second half, but O’Gara had no intention of letting them away with the points. He kicked penalties in the 74th and 79th minutes to inspire his side to a crucial win and, in the process, stamp his undoubted class on this hard fought contest.
D. Hurley, B. Carney, K. Lewis, L. Mafi, I. Dowling, R. O’Gara, P. Stringer (captain), F. Pucciariello, J. Flannery, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll, A. Quinlan, D. Leamy, D. Wallace.
Replacements: K. Earls for Carney (injured, 35), F. Sheahan for Flannery (70), T. Buckley for Pucciariello (71), Pucciariello for Hayes (73).
H. Southwell, A Turnbull, B. Cairns, N. De Luca, A. Maxwell, D. Blair, M. Blair, A. Jacobsen, R. Ford, G. Kerr, C. Hamilton, B. Gissing, A. Hogg (captain), S Cross, R. Rennie.
Replacements: A. Allori for Kerr (56), M. Mustchin for Cross (72).
T. Hayes (Wales)
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