O’Gara rubbishes retirement talk

Munster and Ireland rugby legend Ronan O’Gara has rubbished talk of retirement and even admitted a fourth consecutive Lions Tour next year is in the back of his mind.

O’Gara, however, stressed that his current focus is improving on what he believed was one of his best seasons last year.

He admitted: “For the World Cup (last year) I put everything into that and it went so well from a personal point of view that I was probably re-energised and re-focussed. I think when you step back, you can become very insular in this game and you have to appreciate how lucky I am, and besides, why would I stop when I’ve probably had one of my best seasons last year?’’

When quizzed on his chances of making Warren Gatland’s touring Lions party next summer, O’Gara smiled: “Yeah it would be nice. It’s definitely in the back of my mind but I think you leave it there and concentrate on how you achieve that and get the process right. You could be playing in a test match or you might not even make the Tour. That’s how close it could be. You worry about week to week matters and see how you perform for Munster. If you perform for Munster you’ve a chance of performing for Ireland. If you perform for Ireland you could get on the plane (for the Lions) and anything could happen there.

“A lot can happen in a week in sport so from that point of view, you take it as it comes but to achieve four Tours would be something really, really special.”

Though he hasn’t featured in competitive fare yet this season, he’s itching to get back and has been very impressed by the province’s new head coach Rob Penney.

“It’s great, there’s a really good atmosphere in the camp, that’s crucial and we’ve a very good squad building at the minute and there’s an awful lot of young fellas showing up well in early season.”

Though he stopped short of predicting what would warrant success, he opined: “There’s so much to achieve, I think with Munster, looking back we had a successful group campaign in the Heineken Cup, one of our most successful in the history of the competition to win six out of six yet we came badly unstuck against Ulster and that’s something that disappointed us at the time but it’s gone, it’s over.”

And on the day when he returned to his alma matter in UCC for an honorary conferring, the highest praise of all wasn’t reserved for a previous lecturer, or coach or former manager, but his father Fergal, who works as a Professor of Microbiology at the college.

“He’s been probably the most important person in my career. He’s always in the background and I’ve seen some parents probably having too much of an influence on their kids but he’s got the balance right and I think I needed him an awful lot more when I was a younger fella when I was nearly broken from the game but I think now he’s still always there and this (conferring) is a nice pat on the back for him I hope.’’