O’Gara bemoans dog day afternoon

RONAN O’GARA acknowledged Leinster’s superiority on a seismic evening in Croke Park but insisted Munster’s belief “will not waver” after a catastrophic result that saw the champions’ quest for back-to-back Heineken Cup titles falter badly at the penultimate hurdle.

O’Gara was magnanimous in defeat but in his search to get to the root of a below-par Munster performance, he described it as an off-day, referencing Manchester United who’ve have endured these dog-days occasionally.

He said the team were prepared meticulously by Tony McGahan, that every one was “stimulated” by the rugby they were playing, but recognised that they just didn’t deliver on an evening when they were out-played, out-thought and out-fought by a hungrier, more clinical Leinster team.

“It’s hugely disappointing but (we’ve) no complaints,” said a dejected O’Gara. “The better team won. Sometimes you have to be real to yourself and they were the better side in all aspects and they deserved to win so you have to take your beating and move on.”

In his search to decipher where it all went wrong for the two-times champions, the Ireland and Lions out-half accepted too many individual errors led to a lot of wasted possession.

“Maybe it’s about three errors per individual and multiply that so that’s a lot of possession wasted and makes it very difficult. We didn’t play, we were very disappointing. I wish I could give you an explanation to try and change it, to try and change the momentum of the game but I have huge loyalty, trust and belief in the men in red that got beaten today. We have to take this now because today was the big day.

“You can make excuses: if we played them next week the result might be different but this was the 80 minutes that mattered and they were the team that won the 50-50s and were better at the breakdown and they got a lead and defended very well so that’s my view on things at the minute.”

O’Gara said it’d be wrong to say Leinster were the hungrier side, but warned those who are starting to herald Munster’s demise that his team will bounce back even better.

“I don’t think hunger was an issue. We have quality people, quality rugby players, quality coaching staff. Our ambition is huge. Our belief won’t waver just because of today’s result. I think we’re playing great rugby. We’ve evolved (but) didn’t show that today. Teams like Manchester United have off days, Munster had an off day, the better team won. I know we’ll be back.’’

Describing Leinster as clinical and acknowledging his role in Brian O’Driscoll’s intercept try after the hour mark, O’Gara believed Munster had the capabilities to pull a victory out of the fire.

“They took their chances and once they got a lead they defended really well. At 11-6, even though we played poorly in the first half, I felt it was game on but then that score that Luke (Fitzgerald) got was a killer blow. Even at that stage it was game on but I really put the nail in the coffin by throwing the intercept so the game was dead at that stage.

“It might sound strange but even with nine minutes to go I felt we could win the game. That’s the way we play. I don’t question the attitude of that team. I think the Leinster boys deserved their win, they’ve had their day, fair play to them.

“It doesn’t diminish my opinion of any of my people.”

While Munster started the game as strong favourites, their pre-eminence as a team had grown an even wider fan base when Ian McGeechan named eight members of their squad on the 2009 British and Irish Lions squad.

However, O’Gara doesn’t believe the distraction of the Lions selection and the favourites-tag hampered their preparations. If anything, he said the players simply failed to deliver having being prepared “meticulously” by McGahan.

“With being successful you’re going into most games as favourites – that’s the way it is,’’ O’Gara said.

“That’s because we played well in the past and we were champions and now we’re searching for that title again. If you can’t cope with that, you’re looking for chinks in your approach and Tony had us prepared meticulously but the players failed to deliver.”

Munster’s season is, to all intents and purposes, over after sealing the Magners League title in midweek by virtue of Ospreys failing to get a bonus point in their win over Dragons.

Their final two games of the season against Cardiff and the Ospreys will hardly allow them time to exorcise the ghosts of this Croke Park defeat – although for some the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa is an arena where they can redeem hurt pride.

Does he have extra motivation for the Lions now as a result? “I think it’s a completely different team,” said O’Gara. “This is the Munster team, Munster people – we let a lot of people down. We were playing great rugby. Everyone was excited, every one was learning, every one was stimulated. Today we showed the other side of the coin and that’s disappointing in such a big game but we’ll be back.”