O'Gara bids for Six Nations place

Ireland fly-half Ronan O’Gara will launch his fight for a starting place in the RBS 6 nations clash with France next week when he lines up for his club in the AIB League tomorrow.

O’Gara missed the first two games of the 2003 Six Nations following an ankle injury suffered in a stamping incident during Munster’s Celtic League final victory over Neath at the Millennium Stadium on February 1.

In his absence, O’Gara’s rival David Humphreys has turned in man-of-the-match performances against both Scotland and Italy and the Ulsterman is now in pole position for the number 10 shirt when Ireland play reigning champions France at Lansdowne Road a week tomorrow.

O’Gara came through an Ireland squad training session in Dublin yesterday and will play for AIB All-Ireland League club Cork Constitution in their Division One clash with UL Bohemian at Thomond Park in Limerick.

“Ronan has been involved in physical work over the past few days and has come through very well,” Ireland team manager Brian O’Brien told the Irish Examiner.

“Unless there is a negative reaction, and there doesn’t seem any reason why there should be, Ronan will play for his club on Saturday and we’ll see how things are after that. In the meantime, he will be included in the 22-man squad for the French game.”

That squad is expected to be named today and several of its members will be in action for their clubs this weekend.

O’Gara is joined by hooker Frankie Sheahan for their first outings of the season for Cork Constitution, although winger John Kelly is being rested.

Marcus Horan and Alan Quinlan have been cleared to play for league champions Shannon against Blackrock College, who will have Leo Cullen available to them.

O’Brien defended the decision to allow Horan to play given that he is almost certain to start in the Irish front row as a replacement for the injured Reggie Corrigan.

“The way we see it is that Marcus could do with a match,” reasoned O’Brien.

“He had half a game against Italy but was more or less idle for the few weeks before that. Indeed the guys on the A team have had more rugby than Marcus and the other subs. It’s a case of trying to man-manage the situation as best we can.”