O’Gara encouraged by display of makeshift side

Ireland captain for the night Ronan O’Gara found plenty of positives in the performance of his makeshift XV despite their 29-28 defeat to the Barbarians in Gloucester last night.

The non-cap game at Kingsholm to a Mick O’Driscoll-led Baa-Baas side was decided by a 78th-minute penalty by O’Gara’s long-time rival from Leinster Felipe Contepomi — but the Munster and Ireland fly-half was encouraged by the way his young team quickly gelled after such a short time together, with Craig Gilroy scoring two tries and Keith Earls and Simon Zebo also getting over the line in an eight-try encounter.

“We came in on Thursday to Carton House and we wouldn’t have even thrown a ball at some of the people so it was really encouraging,” O’Gara said. “There were a lot of young fellas who showed what they were capable of tonight. We struggled with some of the interpretations of the ref, particularly at the breakdown. It was four to one in terms of the penalty count and it’s hard to do anything when that happens.