McNaughton hopes for Rog retirement rethink

RONAN O’GARA’S shock announcement that he would retire from international rugby at the end of the World Cup caught the Ireland team management on the hop but there is a hope in the camp that the emotion of a famous victory had got the better of the veteran fly-half.

Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton admitted he was non-plussed by O’Gara’s retirement hint in a post-match TV interview.

“I haven’t talked to him about it,” McNaughton said. “I don’t exactly know where he was coming from, whether it was the emotion of this being his last World Cup in three or four weeks.