O’Gara determined to be more than a backup option

Despite the recent power-shift in Irish rugby from Munster to Leinster, one which has seen Jonathan Sexton promoted to Ireland’s first choice fly-half, Ronan O’Gara believes he has plenty to offer Ireland in the World Cup.

“There is a myth that I’m sitting on the bench,” the Cork man told the Irish Examiner

“Statistically it doesn’t add up like that so from my point of view I’ve become really positive and feel I have a big role and I’m important.

“And so is Jonny obviously, so it’s working out all right.

"It’s been good really, every time I got on the pitch.

"The Six Nations couldn’t have gone much better from my point of view, in terms of the Italy game, we should have beaten France.

“The Scotland game went well, Wales was all right, for 50 minutes, we were still winning...not washing my hands of it.

“So, in that regard I’ve got plenty of rugby and plenty of game time."

Since filling in masterfully for the injured Felipe Contepomi in the 2009 Heineken Cup final, Sexton has catapulted himself into the top tier of rugby and inspired his province's remarkable comeback in the season’s European Cup final.

In spite of Sexton’s rise, O’Gara insists the starting number 10 jersey is far from decided and that both he and his Leinster counterpart will feature in most games.

“When you have two good players, if a fella isn’t playing well there’s another fella and in you go.

“And you don’t read into it about being dropped, or putting your head down or anything.

"That’s the reality of it, you have a minimum of four 80 minutes and no number 10 is going to play the 80.

“You’re going to try and get the best out of a fella for a 50-30.

"With the quality we have, it will be rare that a fella will play 80.”

While Munster and Leinster have proven themselves as contenders at the highest level of European club rugby, this hasn’t always translated into the national side, something which O’Gara hopes will be corrected this summer.

"It’s taken a lot of us a fair bit of time to earn respect at European level, and it’s only when you win European Cups that you get that respect.

“At world level we haven’t done that and we don’t have the respect of people around the world.

"That’s fair enough because until you do you don’t deserve it.

“This team disappointed four years ago and in 2003, mentally we were a bit weak.

“We were delighted to beat Argentina and then there was a game to be won against Australia, yet we weren’t at the pitch mentally to win that.

"This time around, it’s driven by the players.

“There have been different management, but there are a lot of us that realise it’s our last shot at something big."