O’Gara rails against slipping standards

THE thing I admire most about Ronan O’Gara is his passion. After 13 years dedicated to the Munster cause, O’Gara and Paul O’Connell remain the standard-setters. The benchmark. Everything in the Munster camp revolves around those two.

O’Gara and a small group of Munster stalwarts are well aware that within the next twelve months, the side is likely to undergo major surgery, an inevitable consequence of years spent competing at the business end of all the major European competitions.

The likes of the out-half, John Hayes, David Wallace, Alan Quinlan and Peter Stringer are one-offs. Replacing them will be difficult.