Skipper O’Gara warns of Lions backlash

RONAN O’GARA yesterday warned the Emerging Springboks that the wounded British and Irish Lions remain a dangerous animal.

O’Gara was yesterday named captain of the midweek team – the fourth Irish player to be so honoured – to face a South African team intent on further rocking Lions confidence in the build up to the second test in Pretoria on Saturday.

O’Gara labelled this evening’s clash the biggest honour of his career and stressed he doesn’t want it to be his last appearance in the famous red jersey.

“There are others who feel the same and will have the same motivation,” he said. “I was told it was close leading into the first Test and I would like to think it to be more open (for the out-half position) after the weekend. But my focus has changed for now; this development means I’m put in a position of huge honour – leading the Lions, it is a huge bonus and I have to focus on doing what I can do for the team, to make sure we win.

“The most important thing for me is that the tour has gone well from a personal point of view; I’ve got to keep the pressure on Stephen Jones and that has to be the goal for this match – for as long as I am playing. Ultimately, I want to play in the Test series, to have an impact; indeed I want to run out on Saturday to start the Test, but now I’ve other issues,” he said.

O’Gara leads out a team this evening that includes four other Irishmen in the team and another on the bench. The two late arrivals, O’Gara’s Irish colleague John Hayes and Tim Payne of Wasps, will be propping up the scrum just two days after arriving in the country. Payne seems an odd choice for selection ahead of Ireland’s Marcus Horan, but O’Gara deflected the attention of that selection back on the tour management.

“The guys have come in, they both knew they were probably facing into a match straight away and I don’t doubt their ability to play as well as we would expect them. I suppose we do have to win for the whole squad. It has been a great tour and the momentum was broken up by the loss on Saturday. There are many ways of looking at that game but the fact is that we lost and, reflecting on it, the better side won.”

Saturday on the high veldt, where so many touring sides have been suffocated in the past, will be far more difficult. O’Gara agrees, but he is actually looking forward to the challenge.

“I wouldn’t fear playing in a Test game at altitude and in front of a pretty vociferous crowd, but first and foremost, there are Test places to nail down this Tuesday. The most important thing we do is make a statement as a team and there will be certain individuals who may benefit from that.”

World player of the year Shane Williams admits he’s entering the last-chance saloon tonight in an attempt to rescue his Test ambitions.

Williams has been left behind in the Test team running by rival wings Tommy Bowe and Ugo Monye. And he is realistic enough to know a Newlands appointment with the Emerging Springboks could leave any future Lions prospects parked permanently in the hard-shoulder.

“It’s my last opportunity, I suppose,” said Wales’ record international try-scorer. “It is a massive game – it could be my last Lions game ever. I need a big game, I know that, to have any chance of playing in the last two Tests. It is all up to me on the day.

“You come on these tours to play in the Test matches, and I want to play more than anything. I am more determined than ever to be involved. I spoke to (Springboks wing) Bryan (Habana) after the first Test, and told him I was gutted that I wasn’t playing. He said ‘you never know, I might see you next week.’

“I have just got to continue training hard and hopefully take my opportunities when they come. It’s a last-chance saloon tomorrow. I put the pressure on myself.

“There is no-one more disappointed than myself at the moment with the way things have gone, so it is up to me to change that.”

With Monye failing to take two glorious try-scoring opportunities against the Springboks in Durban last Saturday, it has increased pressure on the Harlequins speedster.

But Williams continued: “I am not here to criticise the finishing of the guys on the weekend. I thought Ugo was very unlucky. The first ‘try’ was a tremendous effort by (Jean) de Villiers to stop him scoring. I was on the other side of the field, and I 100% backed Ugo.

“With the other one, he was unfortunate when he had the ball dislodged from his hand. That’s the way it goes sometimes, it has happened to all of us.”