Ronan O'Gara: I will be contesting this latest charge with every fibre

There’s an old Irish saying: If you’ve a reputation for getting up early in the morning, you can stay in bed all day. This now seems to be a cant – O’Gara is at it again – and it’s repugnant nonsense.

ANGUISH: England's Owen Farrell is taking a break from international rugby.

IT was interesting reading the comments of Mark McCall on the decision of his Saracens out-half Owen Farrell to take a sabbatical from his international career in 2024. Farrell is opting out to prioritise his family and his mental well-being after what McCall believes to be shameful treatment of the player from the public.

I can’t pretend to know how Owen Farrell is feeling or how he deals with the pressure of this gig, but I know that it comes in waves that reach a crescendo and resemble a tsunami. Of course it comes with the gig but in the wake of Ireland’s disastrous 2007 World Cup in France, I was under a heat-lamp that was as intense as anything I felt in my career to that point.