Perfect 10 O’Gara: fly-half shirt there for taking
Fly-half O’Gara, playing his 106th game for Ireland, scored a try and three conversions in the 21-18 win yesterday to steady the Irish ship in the wake of defeat to France two weeks ago.
After starting the first two games of the Six Nations campaign this season on the bench as back up to Jonathan Sexton, the Munster veteran justified his first start of 2011 by bringing some more balanced game management to the Irish performance, giving his team the field position from which to launch attacks rather than relying more heavily on running the ball out of their own half as had been the case under Sexton.
Sexton, 25, came on for the last 12 minutes against the Scots and saw Ireland home to victory, with O’Gara, 34 next month, the first onto the pitch to embrace his rival at the final whistle. The gloves are off, though, in terms of the battle for the starting fly-half’s role with the elder statesman also insisting their styles of play were similar.
“I was frustrated and I was disappointed probably not to be getting more games,” O’Gara said. “But in the bigger picture, with the World Cup, I can understand it. But now I think it’s all to play for in terms of starting and adding something.
“I think that I’ve adapted well to competition, it’s brought out the best in me over the years and I think Jonny Sexton has a huge role to play, he’s a class player and you could see him learning there, he kicked a lovely ball down into the corner to take pressure off.
“That’s something that’s frustrating from my point of view, this view that we play different types of games. Essentially the two of us play the exact same game but people might look upon it to suit their agendas.”
As for the current state of the competition with Sexton, O’Gara said: “I don’t know, I’m not too bothered, to be honest. It’s up to the coaches’ opinion. The most important thing for me is Ireland win, and I started, so that’s all I’ll say.”
CAPTAIN Brian O’Driscoll praised O’Gara’s game management but was careful not to leave out Sexton from the conversation.
“Rog steered us around the pitch, kicked to the corners very good, scored a crucial try himself, it was a very good performance,” he said. “Excuse for me for not sounding shocked because he pulled out another great performance in a green jersey. When Sexton came on it was really encouraging to have replacements of that calibre coming on.
“I don’t want to be very one-sided, I think Jonathan did very well the last two games and I feel he was very unfortunate to be out. We’ve got two very good 10s pushing to the best of their ability and getting the best out of each other.
“That’s where we want to be. Rog steered us very well for 60 or 65 minutes and Sexton defended well when we needed. Very good performance from both.’’
Having played himself back into the Ireland reckoning, O’Gara acknowledged a more relaxed attitude to his rugby had been helpful to his game.
“Yeah I just think...I struggled for years probably, it was so important to me that I take my rugby very seriously and at times I might feel personally.
“But I’ve been lucky, my career has been brilliant to me and I wouldn’t change a thing. But at this stage I’ve got to enjoy it because I’ve only got a year or two left, so I think I can’t be playing for people all the time, I have to be playing for myself and my family, that’s probably the way I’m going now.
“I really enjoyed this morning, I was chilled out and relaxed and I think it’s a good positive mindset to bring.
“You can always learn, it doesn’t matter what stage your career’s at, and you look at the exuberance and confidence of the Leinster players and that’s something that I can learn from. I think I’m a rookie compared to some of these guys, the way they act, and I think that’s a great trait to have in a person.”
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