There’ll always be another kick, but O’Gara’s a one-off

A LITTLE over 10 years ago, Ronan O’Gara found himself in the toilets of a bar in Cork when he spotted someone smirking at him. “How do I know you?” asked the stranger.

“I don’t know,” replied O’Gara.

“Oh yeah, I remember. You’re the w****r that missed the kick against Northampton.”

The putdown left O’Gara stunned on the spot but it’s a measure of his durability that there have been so few references in recent days to the fact his opponents in the 2000 Heineken Cup final defeat were the same club he foiled in Thomond Park last Saturday night.

In his autobiography he termed that miss in Twickenham ‘The Kick’. Now no one knows him primarily for The Kick. Instead he’ll be better known as the man who scored That Drop Kick against Northampton and a litany of other crucial scores, and the beauty of it all is that same “langer” who mocked him in that jacks probably leapt out of his seat like everyone else at seeing that ball sail between the posts last Saturday.

In America they have a term for a player who continuously makes the big plays in the closing moments — clutch. Joe Montana was pure clutch. In basketball, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. Never in Irish sport or indeed world rugby has there been anyone more visibly clutch than O’Gara.

Of course O’Gara has had advantages that a Ring or a Campese could never enjoy, being a child of a professional and televised era. And while his overall athletic talent and impact cannot reasonably be compared to global superstars like Bird and Jordan, his propensity to deliver in the crunch is comparable to those icons.

Jimmy Lynam, the former coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, once said of Jordan: “If he could go out and play 82 close games where he had the ball with the game on the line, that would be his dream season.” Paul O’Connell essentially echoed those words last Saturday night: “If Ronan could orchestrate every game to end like that, he’d do it.”

Just like 1990s America, 21st Century Ireland has been raised on a staple of televised games, knowing the ball and the game is likely to end up in a certain man’s hands. And more often than not, he’s delivered.

This year alone, O’Gara’s provided five standout clutch plays: a last-gasp penalty against Glasgow in Musgrave Park inJanuary; the drop goal in Rome to avoid an embarrassing opening Six Nations defeat to Italy; a last-second penalty against Leinster in the Magners League in Thomond; thenanother against the Ospreys three weeks later and, best of all, that drop goal after 41 phases and 50 passes.

In many ways the night the Munster adventure, the O’Gara legend, indeed the Heineken Cup itself was really born was when he nailed a late penalty in Vicarage Road against Saracens back in 1999. A few weeks later he repeated the trick by nailing a last-minute conversion in the return.

Of course he had some rough moments after that. There was The Kick. He missed a couple of other ones in the 2002 decider too. But the way he got over them was to realise he’d make — and miss — more big kicks after them. In a new book, Stillpower, a Garret Kramer contends the best clutch players deliver because they play with a certain freedom; they know they will be perfectly okay even if they miss. It’s certainly true of O’Gara. Reflecting on Twickenham 2000, he once said: “Sport does that to you. It might seem like the end of the world, for a little while. But you get on with it. You know there will be other days, other kicks.”

And so there has. We all remember the 2009 Grand Slam decider to the point we’ve nearly forgotten his other brilliant drop goal against the Welsh in 2003 that set up the Martin Johnson Grand Slam decider. There was the conversion in the Miracle Game against Gloucester; the late drop goal in a 2004 Test against Argentina; in 2006, a last-minute penalty 46-yard kick against the wind to beat Leicester in Leicester. We could go on and on, simply because he does.

Last Saturday O’Gara was the only starter who also started that 2000 Munster-Northampton final, or indeed either of those two games against Saracens 12 years ago. After the win in Welford Road, O’Gara commented on the unbelievable scenes it triggered. “Irish rugby was in the pits at the time… [so] we were going around as if we’d won the World Cup.”

Last month O’Gara’s last chance to win a World Cup passed, yet he keeps going on, creating more unbelievable scenes, still firm in the conviction there’ll still be other days, other kicks.

There won’t be another him though.