O’Gara lifts lid on decade of mental anguish

Ronan O’Gara has admitted he was racked with self doubt and an inner torment for years and has only recently begun to enjoy rugby.

The Munster and Ireland out-half’s name has been synonymous with scoring records and heroic deeds for the past 15 seasons. But despite scoring a remarkable 3,651 points to become the fourth highest points scorer in the history of the game, for years he could not enjoy the game due to confidence issues.

“Throughout my career, I had self doubts, massive issues with confidence that people might not understand but that’s the truth,” he said.

“It’s probably only in the last few years that I’ve figured out how to enjoy the game because I had 10 years of, if not hell, inner torment where I was worried too much about other people’s opinions and I was trying to please everyone.”

But O’Gara used those lows as a motivation and, combined with the changes in the game to professionalism, he learned to cope with failures which would have previously destroyed him.

“After finishing school and going to university, the game was changing from amateur to professional and that suited me. I got to play with all the good characters playing the game. It certainly helped to keep me grounded and gave me a sense of perspective about what life is about.

“It’s possibly difficult for a young lad coming in nowadays because the expectation is so high, but for us the best thing that happened was probably having massive disappointment, losing a European Cup final [8-9 to Northampton in 2000], and me missing kicks.

“That was probably the turning point... no, it wasn’t the actual turning point, that was a bad day, but addressing that became the turning point in how to deal with success and failure.”

O’Gara may be in the autumn of his career and having to contend with Jonathan Sexton, as well as emerging 10s Paddy Jackson and JJ Hanrahan, but has no intention of sitting back and waiting for the challengers to push him aside. He is bullish about his determination to play for another three years and sees no reason why it can’t happen.

“I won’t look back until I’m finished,” he said. “The day you look back is the day you are finished and being honest I am just too focused to think that way. It’s not on the agenda.”

The concession he makes to the past is to pay lavish praise on IRFU administrator Tom Kiernan for his huge role in formatting the Heineken Cup way back then and the fact several now retired colleagues, particularly those in Munster, have become lifelong friends.

Otherwise, he’s looking forward to those next few seasons, happy his diligent training regime and natural flexibility will help keep him in the good shape he has managed throughout his long career.

There is, he concedes, an element of luck in the fact he has generally avoided serious injury but he puts that down in part to his 100% commitment and the huge support from the IRFU’s injury prevention programme.

Down a level from the national team, there is a view that Munster, who continue their RaboDirect Pro12 campaign against the Scarlets at Musgrave Park on Sunday, is going through a transition, but O’Gara insists that good things lie ahead.

“We were crippled with injuries and retirements in the last 18 months or so, but things have settled down now.

“There are a lot of youngsters coming through and there’s some real excitement rippling through the squad. I think if we can have a relatively injury free run, we can give things a right rattle this season.”