‘I have loved Munster all my career and now I really love this team’

“I HAVE loved Munster all my career and now I really love this team. It is a special dressing room at the minute." Frank, compelling and ecstatic, Ronan O’Gara is wearing a smile as broad as Cardiff’s River Taff.
Fly half O’Gara has known some wonderful days at the Millennium Stadium with Munster. Now he has scaled the dizzy heights in the green of Ireland. The 32-year-old has a Grand Slam, RBS Six Nations Championship and another Triple Crown to go with his two Heineken Cup medals. Having come close to securing a ‘Slam’ on several occasions in recent years, O’Gara could now savour the magnitude of the team’s achievements.
“It was fantastic. It was bloody difficult. We made it difficult at times and we also played great rugby,” Ronan O’Gara stressed.
“We could have ripped them apart. We had them on the rack. They came back and I think the penalty count was something like 17-4 which was unbelievable.
“To win a game with a penalty count like that against us proves the bottle in the team. That is what counted. We stuck at it away from home. We had fantastic support. I think half of Ireland must be here.
“There is great belief in this team now and it is a happy team.”
So what did O’Gara remember of the drop goal which ultimately secured Ireland’s first Grand Slam title in 61 years?
“That drop goal came about 90 seconds too early!,” O’Gara insisted.
“I remember Clive Woodward saying that it took 30 seconds to win a World Cup and it is the same with winning a Test match.
“That is all you need. The forwards did fantastic and then Rory Best got lost a little bit. I was hoping he would get out of the way. They (Wales) definitely cheated on the charge, so I had to get the ball up as opposed to kick through it. That meant I had to break my technique. I spiralled it through which shouldn’t happen for a drop goal, but it went straight.
“But as you saw there was a lot more drama left after that. I think when you score two tries you deserve to win two finals. They never looked like scoring a try and that was the key point. There is massive support for this team.
“This morning I had three fellows, David Humphries, Nicky English and Barry McGuigan from three different sports, sending me powerful texts. And that gets through to you.
“It shows what you represent when you see the President on the pitch.
“I thought Brian (O’Driscoll) was exceptional. I thought we came good in the second half. We probably had a quiet first half, made a few errors, but then we came good when the pressure came on. That is all we need. We had key men in the key positions. There is real belief in this team. We were not going to lose this game. Mistakes happen when you are put under pressure. People forget sometimes that your heart rate is up around 200. It is easy looking at it from a seat and commenting on it.
“We don’t intend making mistakes. I don’t intend making a mistake, but they happen. You just keep at it and keep going, giving the forwards direction. I think we scored two fantastic tries. We were the side which put them under pressure more. But the whole thing today was about belief and this team has belief now.”
O’Gara’s Munster colleague Donncha O’Callaghan had the inkling that Wales were going to ‘target’ the Irish out-half from the moment their captain Ryan Jones stuck out a leg to trip him in the opening minutes.
So O’Callaghan let Jones and the Welsh know that Ireland would not be intimidated, even if his chastising of the Welsh captain resulted in the visitors conceding the first of a whopping 15 penalties.
“They definitely targeted Rog. When you see a buddy being treated like that, you want to look out for him,” Donncha O’Callaghan said.
“Granted, it is probably not ideal to get into the game like I did. I always pride myself on my discipline. Sometimes you cannot be bullied either. If you look at the video I am sure you will see plenty of incidents where Rog (Ronan O’Gara) got cheap shots. When you have a player of his quality and you go out to play against other teams, they are going to target him. When it is your friend, you are going to row in behind him.
“Rog showed what an incredible pro he is with that drop goal late on. Another fellow would have kept his head down and ran out the gate.
“But Ronan thrives on pressure like that. I know that when our front five or front eight saw that ball coming back to him in the dying minutes of the game, it could not be coming into safer hands.
O’Callaghan found the hours leading up to Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off long.
“The time before kick-off was hell. The day crawled,” Donncha O’Callaghan revealed.
“A 5.30pm kick-off for an international is a disaster, to be honest.
“The only comfort you can take is that David Wallace is worse that everyone. He comes down ash-faced, looking like a Goth. That’s it. Once you know there is one person worse than you, you know you will survive.
“People say you should enjoy that, but I don’t personally enjoy it. It’s the aftermath of a game you win that you enjoy. It is not just about this team. There are the fellows who have gone before. You like at the effort the likes of Earlsie (Keith Earls) and Quinny (Alan Quinlan) made. You feel sorry for these guys who didn’t make it into the 22. There is a great togetherness in the squad.”
O’Callaghan said it was great that a bunch of players who had endured a hugely frustrating World Cup less than two years ago had bounced back in such style.
“We had some really tough days at the World Cup. To have a special day like that with the group of lads is great,” O’Callaghan said.
“There is a different feeling around the team as well. Everyone has rowed in behind us as well. The support we have received has been incredible.”

Colm Kinsella