‘The Munster thing? There will never be anything like it’

THE external bruises from his date with the Cardiff Blues were there for all to see, steri-strips acting as a poor camouflage for yet another cut and bloodied right eye.

While it was superficial compared to the mess he was in after that unprovoked attack by Australia’s Duncan McRae on the 2001 Lions Tour, one senses the internal scars Ronan O’Gara is suffering since Munster’s Heineken Cup semi-final defeat to Biarritz are more acute than anything visible to the naked eye.

The only thing that has helped to lift the gloom of that poor performance at the Estadio Anoeta is the news that, much to his shock, the Munster out-half has received the singular honour of being named the European player of the past 15 years by the ERC.