O’Gara intervention changed the game, says De Villiers

South Africa coach Peter De Villiers praised Ronan O’Gara for his performance when the Munster fly-half entered the game as a substitute in yesterday’s game.

O’Gara appeared from the bench with 15 minutes of the game remaining and set up tries for Tommy Bowe and Rob Kearney which brought Ireland to within two points of the visitors after trailing 23-9 and the game looking dead and buried.

De Villiers was quick to praise the intervention of the veteran playmaker.

“The one (Irish) substitution that really went against us was when O’Gara came on, he took the game to us and really caused havoc in those last few minutes,” he said.

“If they (Irish management) didn’t make that substitution we were quite fine because we knew exactly what they (Ireland) were doing up to that moment.”