Ronan O’Gara hopes to tie down starting spot against South Africa

MUNSTER out-half Ronan O’Gara is hoping to tie down a spot in the Lions Test team to face the Springboks later this month with a little help from Welsh kicking king Neil Jenkins.
O’Gara is involved in a battle with Stephen Jones for the number 10 jersey ahead of the opening Test with the Springboks at the ABSA Stadium, Durban on Saturday, June 20.
Neil Jenkins played a key role in the Lions stunning 1997 series win over South Africa and he will join up with Ian McGeechan’s squad this week to offer some advice to the squad’s place kickers. Thirty two-year-old O’Gara, who played in the Lions clash with the Sharks in Durban on Wednesday night said: “The kicking game has gone well but there’s so much more to a kicking game than a goalkicking game.
“It will be interesting in that we haven’t done much in terms of an attacking kicking game or much in a strategic kicking game. But that’s an area I’m looking forward to exploring. If you can get the right kind of kick it’s very, very hard for you to defend.
“It’s all kicking on the run which is how rugby is played and running through the balls that’s something I’ve really enjoyed.
“I get very excited with kicking in training and kicking in games - the ability to keep learning and evolving, otherwise you stay the same.
“You put more emphasis on a power position than standing tall, so you’re kicking with your body instead of kicking with your leg. That’s something I practice in training and it’s working so I go with it.”
In stark contrast to 2005, when Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward split his party into a midweek side and the Test squad early on, McGeechan is adamant everyone will get a fair chance to play their way into the team to face the World champions on June 20.
McGeechan is, however, aware of the risks of not giving the first Test team a match together before they meet the Springboks.
“It’s got to be about us and what we want to try and be come first Test day,” the coach explained.
“There are some risks, but I think what we get out of it as a squad far outweighs that.
“The only other way of doing it is you separate the teams and you say to half the squad ‘You are not going to be involved in a Test match,’ and I am not prepared to do that.”
“I want all the players to give me a selection headache. The fewer easy choices I have to make, the better.
“If you’ve got only six games to your first Test match, the chances are you might only play twice or three times.
“What is important is the time they are getting together on the training field.
“If you were saying to me now ‘Pick a Test team,’ I would be doing it on the back of one game that a player has played, in some cases.
“I don’t think that is fair to the players.
“I know we can’t change the number of games going into the first Test.
“I just think it is more important that each player gets a genuine go - at least twice - to put his own game on the field.”

Colm Kinsella