Captain fantastic calls the shots
With wind and rain belting down on an already sodden pitch, treacherous conditions and Munster’s quarter-final fate hanging in the balance almost to the end there was practically no margin for error. But the number 10 delivered.
A certain try saved in the first quarter, a try made in the last quarter, and five from five from placed balls, not to mention brilliant ground-devouring kicks from hand to continually turn Wasps.
O’Gara’s decision-making at out-half has never really been in question but as captain he’s taken that to a new level — and his team to the quarter-final.
“Yeah, it’s great, I’m thrilled, it’s a huge achievement for the squad. The most pleasing thing was last Sunday (against Clermont away), the way we stuck in and fought for the crucial (bonus) point. With the conditions tonight there was no possibility of getting four tries; a lot of us were disappointed when we saw the weather, we fancied having a go but you couldn’t play much rugby in that.
“The rugby we played was sensible rugby, it got us where we want to be.”
Has he ever played better for Munster? “I don’t know; I’ve really enjoyed the captaincy. I was thinking during the week that if we didn’t qualify, I’d be the first captain in 10 years that hadn’t led Munster into a quarter-final — that put a lot of pressure on my shoulders, and I felt that.
“In the captain’s meeting, before I went out, I asked the forwards for a big performance and they delivered. The sum of the parts in Munster is always greater than the individual effort but there are some cracking athletes and rugby players here. Once you have the will to win, the character and the desire for each other, it’s a good formula.”
One of those forwards, Donncha O’Callaghan, won the official man-of-the-match award, and his captain wouldn’t begrudge the big man that. Yet this was O’Gara’s night.
Decisions? Twice he was urged by his forwards to let them take on a Wasps pack that had just been reduced to seven (due to yellow cards for Simon Shaw and Laurence Dallaglio); twice he overruled them.
The first occasion was just before the break, when he opted for a kick at goal from the most difficult of angles for a right-footed kicker, wide right on the 22 across the wind; the second came 14 minutes into the second half
Let’s take the first decision: “There was time for a scrum but not for a lineout; it was hard to step, hard to play quality rugby out there and I felt we weren’t going to catch them on an 8/9/14 move, or switching the ball to midfield where they were strong; the cross-kick wasn’t really an option, so three points was the sensible way to go — 9-3 was a big lead at half-time.”
The kick was nailed and the Munster cheers rang out.
Then there was the second big decision, in the 54th minute: “At 9-3 the boys wanted to go for the scrum but I thought it was important to go 12-3; it was a gimme in front of the posts.”
Nailed again. There was time for Wasps to come back and steal the only quarter-final slot on offer from this group. One try would do them; in bonus point territory, deny Munster a try of their own, and the critical quarter-final position was theirs.
O’Gara was well aware of the possibility: “Oh God we were, we had our homework done. But you can never pre-plan these things; you get a feel for a game, these things develop.”
To make absolutely sure that they’d advance, Munster needed a try. When it came, 75th minute, who was the orchestrator?
“The forwards had done brilliantly — over and back, over and back, wearing them down, wearing them down; then I saw it was Ibanez and Redser (Eoin Reddan, Wasps second half) second-last defender; my idea was to hit Marcus (Horan) straight at Redser but I just kept running.
“I think someone shot out of their line, then I offloaded to Leams and he did the rest. Once we got the try, it was massive relief.”
And yet, even with all that, O’Gara still took time to offer a bit of self-criticism. It came when he was lauded for his covering back to deny Wasps winger David Doherty the touchdown after a chase of his own kick through, in the 15th minute, O’Gara just managing to boot the ball dead before Doherty could get his hands on it.
“I just got my body in the way,” he explained. “I knew it was a winger, I was wondering when he was going to go by me, couldn’t believe it (when he didn’t). It was my own fault in the first place because I stepped in, created the overlap situation for them, and I did that again later in the half — they were two negatives from my point of view.
“I misread it and Reddan caught me a beaut, got the ball out, so I had to cover back.”
Small faults in a huge performance. O’Gara just keeps pushing the boundaries.
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