Perfect 10 O’Gara kicks Wasps off throne
Donncha O’Callaghan was voted man-of-the-match and he had a magnificent game, as did all eight forwards on a night of high pressure and relentless rain which drained the last drop of energy from each participant.
Standing on a different pedestal, however, was O’Gara. He showed his burning resolution and a very smart turn of speed in the 14th minute to outpace Wasps winger David Doherty and prevent a certain try. He went on to kick five goals from five attempts on a quagmire of a pitch where keeping one’s feet alone was a major challenge. Then there was the manner in which he mixed his tactical kicking. Time and again he confused and unsettled the Wasps defence before late in the game he scythed his way through in classical out-half fashion before delivering a perfect scoring pass to Denis Leamy.
And, let’s not forget his captaincy of the victorious team. He has grown into the job so well that he is now entitled to his place in the pantheon of great Munster leaders like Mick Galwey, Jim Williams, Anthony Foley and Paul O’Connell.
High praise, indeed, but well merited. Just about everyone at Thomond Park on Saturday were subsumed by the majesty of O’Gara’s display.
Even Wasps captain Lawrence Dallaglio took time off from slagging the referee to agree that “Ronan O’Gara knows how to play a lead, especially on his own pitch”.
Dallaglio’s director of rugby Ian McGeechan and coach Shaun Edwards saw things in a similar light.
McGeechan: “Ronan O’Gara was the difference. He put the forwards in the right place and ensured they played the game in the right part of the field.”
Edwards went even further: “If I hadn’t been coaching Wasps, I would almost have stood up and applauded O’Gara because I thought he was superb in the second half. The variety of his kicking, his control of the game; it was a marvellous performance by a number 10 in great form.”
Even that was nothing compared with how his long term-mentor and tough taskmaster Declan Kidney reacted to this latest tour de force.
“I thought Ronan was absolutely magnificent. I couldn’t speak highly enough of the man. His match management and the way he played through was exceptional. A huge amount of credit is due to him.”
O’Gara stressed how “huge an achievement it was for the squad” and went back to the previous week to laud the players for leaving Clermont with the bonus point that kept them in the competition. On a personal note, he underlined how he “has really enjoyed the captaincy although during the week I was thinking that if we didn’t qualify, I’d be the first captain in 10 years not to lead Munster into the quarter-finals and that was pressure on my shoulders.”
He outlined how, at the captain’s meeting, he had asked the forwards for a big performance and they had delivered.
And he went on: “The sum of the parts in Munster is always greater than the individual but there are some cracking athletes and rugby players so once you have that will to win, the character and the desire for each other makes it a good formula.”
O’Gara’s point about his captaincy is well made. He had a few tough calls to make, notably one on the stroke of the interval when the referee told him he had time for a scrum or a kick at goal but not for a line-out. He took the responsibility on himself from way out on the right and nervelessly drilled a difficult kick between the sticks to open a six points lead (9-3).
O’Gara’s brilliant all-round play and goal kicking pushed Munster 12-3 ahead after 53 minutes and while it was looking good, the fear was always present that Wasps would grab a try and sneak past the home side in the qualification stakes.
So when they pitched camp deep in the Wasps 22 with 10 minutes to play, Munster were determined to stay there.
They reeled off the phases much as they had done in similar conditions at Llanelli.
This time, there were 22 in all as they all handled the bar of soap with absolute perfection. Finally, the Wasps defence cracked.
“The forwards were wearing them down and wearing them down and when I saw Ibanez and Redzer as the second last defender, I just kept running and somebody shot out of the line and then I off-loaded to Leams and he did the rest,” O’Gara said.
“To get the try then was a massive relief because of the quality of Wasps. If they got it to 12-8, 12-10, we’d win the game but they’d go through.”
At 19-3, though, that fear was extinguished and in spite of late Wasps pressure, the soaked supporters knew it was a done deal well before the final whistle and joyously belted out “The Fields” and “Stand Up and Fight” with rare gusto.
FINALLY, in lavishing praise on O’Gara, I would hate to give the impression that was a one-man band. The out-half would be first to point out that he couldn’t have performed to this level without the support of every one of his teammates.
Wasps are a fine side and had reason to feel hard done by at the sin binning of Simon Shaw for not retiring 10 metres at a Munster penalty close to their posts. Ian McGeechan felt Nigel Owens might have been trying to square the deal as he had already binned Denis Leamy. Later, Mr Owen put none other than the ever chatting Lawrence Dallaglio in his place leaving the game’s most talkative one to cool his heels for 10 minutes.
But Munster maintained their discipline much better than Wasps, a point forcibly made by Kidney, who rightly stressed that the glory rested with the entire squad. O’Gara may have stood out but that doesn’t mean you argue with Donncha O’Callaghan’s man-of-the-match award.
He has developed into one of the game’s great tacklers and work horses and is only getting better.
Much the same can be said of Shaun Payne who brought off one catch that would have impressed if not actually astonished the most ardent of Kerry football fans and there were indications, too, of what Doug Howlett can mean to this team.
“He’s not regarded as one of the great All Blacks for nothing,” said O’Gara.
This was Munster’s best performance of the campaign and it’s only a pity, as the captain pointed out, that they won’t play together again for 10 weeks. “We’ve been in a hard group, the momentum is there, and it would be great to try and continue this competition but that’s not the way it is,” he regretted.
S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, D Howlett; R O’Gara (capt), P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley.
Replacements: A. Quinlan for Foley 75; F. Sheahan for Flannery 84.
J Lewsey; P Sackey, F Waters, R Hoadley, D Waldouck; D Cipriani, E Reddan; T Payne, R Ibanez, P Vickery, S Shaw, G Skivington, J Haskell, T Rees, L Dallaglio (capt).
Replacements: T. Palmer for Shaw 48; R. Webber 61; J. Ward for Ibanez 76; T. French for Payne 83.
Nigel Owens (Wales).
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