Ronan O'Gara: Jerry Holland, the quiet architect of special Munster days

'I’d love to have told him in recent times how frequently I have leaned on his tutelage.'

TIES THAT BIND: Munster out half Ronan O'Gara embraces Jerry Holland after the 2008 Heineken Cup final. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

BACK then, we trained Tuesday and Thursdays with Munster but before we got down to it in 1997, a Munster motley crew headed for a Turkish holiday.

There were maybe eight of us, superstars in our own lunchboxes. Frankie Sheahan, Anthony Horgan, Aidan McSweeney, Wally, Micko, Tom Tierney, Colm McMahon and myself. Strutters. I got the hair bleached out there, sharp as a blade I reckoned.