Jubilant McGahan hails his kicking king O’Gara

MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan hailed the brilliance of Ronan O’Gara whose pressure penalty secured the province a one-point win over Leinster on Saturday night.

O’Gara, battered and bruised, held his nerve to slot over the kick to delight the Thomond Park faithful.

But McGahan admitted he had little doubts when the out-half stepped up to the ball.

McGahan said: “If you had anyone to kick for your life, he would certainly be the person and it was just a great compliment for him to finish off the game for what he contributed to it (game) overall.”

“When you’re dealing with a person and a competitor like Ronan O’Gara, I think any followers of Munster and Irish rugby would understand the competitor that he is and how much he wants to win.

But McGahan also paid tribute to his forward pack especially for their response to a first-half hammering at the breakdown area. “It was a tough game, not just for the back rows but pretty much everywhere; they (Leinster) won the first half and we won the second half. The breakdown was massive and we managed to hold onto the ball much better in the second half. We first managed to get parity and then got on top. I think overall we won more of the 50-50s and whoever wins those little battles usually come out on the right side of the result.”

Number eight James Coughlan, who ran O’Gara close for man of the match award, offered an insight into the half-time teamtalk as the hosts trailed 9-20.

“We knew ourselves what was lacking; anytime we got into their 22 we gave them back the ball softly and you’re not going to get scores by doing that so it was a matter of keeping the ball and keeping the tempo of the game up.

“Tony, Laurie (Fisher) and Axel (Anthony Foley) reinforced that (view) at half-time, but I think we knew ourselves we weren’t matching them physically. We needed to rectify it and I think we did. We gave away a couple of soft penalties and then were chasing ourselves, doing things we wouldn’t normally have done. They were sending more players to the breakdown area; we were trying to win them with one or two when maybe we needed three or four.”

David Wallace, Donncha Ryan and replacement Denis Leamy were also immense while Coughlan was keen to acknowledge the work of the front row and Munster’s general level of competency out of touch.

“Our set-piece play was fantastic, I think we got 100% on everything, we won our own scrums and managed to put them under pressure, turned over a few crooked throws and, generally, our set-piece is getting better and better.”

He hopes that will manifest itself when Munster travel to take on Brive in Saturday’s Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final, a competition which he views as a decent alternative to the Heineken Cup.

“We’re all disappointed to be out of the Heineken but we’re here on top of the Magners League, we’re in a quarter-final for the Amlin Cup and we have to keep this momentum going. We want two trophies in the cabinet at the end of the season, that’s our goal. Granted, one of them isn’t necessarily the one we started out (looking for) but if we have two trophies then that can’t be a bad reflection on what we’ve done.”