O’Gara to make Ireland’s calls

RONAN O’GARA received a belated 31st birthday present yesterday when named captain of the Irish team to face England at Twickenham on Saturday.

He had no chance of celebrating the event on Friday and little reason to do so after the following day’s disappointing performance against Scotland. His opposite number will be Danny Cipriani, whom he knows well from Munster’s two games against London Wasps earlier this season, rather than Jonny Wilkinson, but that’s something he will think about later in the week.

“I was told first thing this morning by Eddie and I was half hoping for the job, to be honest,” he said. “I’m thrilled, delighted and very honoured.

“It’s a massive opportunity, a massive challenge and I can’t wait for Saturday. Brian’s injury ruled him out and with Paulie only coming back into the team…he’s a man I have the utmost respect for. He’s the natural leader and a very close friend. He’s someone I go to in the Munster team.

“Just because he’s not officially been named as captain, that won’t affect our relationship. I’ve huge trust in him and I think he has huge trust in me.

“This was the ideal chance for me to get the nod because Brian is injured and Paulie is probably one or two games away from being at the level he wants to be.”

Though O’Gara has led Munster — and extremely well — for each of their six Heineken Cup games this season, he has little experience of the job.

However, that wasn’t always the case in his younger days, as he explained with a broad smile.

“Con U12s were the first team I captained,” he said. “We won a European Cup in France under Fred Casey. Strings (Peter Stringer) was on that team but I can’t remember who else. I think a lot of them slipped through the net. Then, when I went to Pres, I captained junior and senior cup teams under Deccy (Declan Kidney).

“He’d grill you on your lunch break, asking about, ‘what would you do in this part of the pitch? What would you do here?’ They were the building blocks. When you’re a young fella, you think that you’re a lot better than you actually are. It’s only when you grow into a team and become more experienced that you realise how much more you have to learn about being a captain.”

O’Gara relates how he led the PBC juniors and seniors to the provincial titles although he did point out that: “When we beat Wally’s (David Wallace) Crescent senior team in the final, they missed eight kicks at goal. They were robbed. We deserved to win the Junior Cup but for the Senior Cup, we were lucky.” He added: “I suppose the big thing is that captaining Munster was new for me. I didn’t realise how much more there was to the role other than just playing. It’s challenging but it’s a privilege to lead such an honest bunch.

“You have to learn from your mistakes. I captained Munster in the quarter-final last year when we were beaten comprehensively. That was a poor day but you have to learn from those things.”

O’Gara realises that as the team’s pivotal player at out-half, he must play his own game as well as keeping an eye on the overall picture.

“The most important thing for me is that actions speak louder than words,” he stressed. “If I perform well, that’s the key to showing my teammates that I know how to do it. If I get my own game right, I’ll be happy. But, at the back of your mind, you have to think about the team performance and that’s something we’ll work on this week. Paul and myself are already on top of that.”

Predictably, O’Gara scoffed at notions that because the game is a “dead rubber”, after the weekend loss to Wales.

“My frame of mind would be the complete opposite,” he declared. “There are some injuries and they’re presenting huge opportunities, particularly for the young guys in the back line. I think in this environment, there aren’t many players secure in their positions and competition for places is intense. It should be all about expressing ourselves and that’s the message I have to portray to the team.

“We have to go out and have a go. Let’s go and play, and if we’re beaten by a better team on the day, we’ll accept that. The frustrating thing is that last weekend, we didn’t play rugby. We under-performed and were beaten. But you learn from that and we have an opportunity to go out and show how we can play.”

O’Gara’s impassioned plea to the troops prior to the French game is widely regarded by the Irish squad as one of the reasons why they produced a commendable second-half rally in Paris. Nor is he prepared to disown his role in the strange and much-criticised tactical strategy of the Scottish game.

“The game plan is in my hands,” he said. “For 20 minutes it was ideal and if we’d gone 13-0 up, then the tactics would have been to change. I think we had four attacking opportunities in the whole game. That was obviously an issue for concern but you can’t change that result. It’s important for this team and players, whose confidence levels aren’t as high as they should be, that we have to make sure we’re in the best frame of mind.

“We have to be positive. I’m excited by this game. England at Twickenham. There mightn’t be much at stake in some people’s eyes but there’s pride at stake for me and the team. Not only are we representing the Irish rugby team, we’re representing the Irish public. That’s something that’s hugely important to me. I’ll take personal responsibility for trying to put a smile back on the people’s faces in Ireland.”