Keith Wood backs Ronan O’Gara

FORMER Irish rugby captain Keith Wood has backed Munster out-half Ronan O’Gara to bounce back from the disappointment of being dropped for Ireland’s glamour autumn international clash with world champions South Africa at Croke Park this Saturday.
Wood described the decision to opt for Jonathan Sexton at number 10 as a ‘bold’ one, but said the choice of the Leinster man at out-half wasn’t that big a surprise considering the player’s excellent form.
O’Gara has started every Test match for Ireland against top-ranked opposition for the past six seasons.
The 32-year-old has amassed 93 caps since 2000.
Grand Slam champions Ireland will go through the 2009 calendar year unbeaten if they can avoid defeat against the Springboks (2.30pm).
“I was very surprised that Jonathan Sexton was selected. I didn’t really think that is was going to happen,” Keith Wood admitted in Limerick on Tuesday night.
“But having said that, Jonny (Jonathan Sexton) has been playing unbelievably well. I don’t think you can say that it is a great surprise in relation to form.
“I think it’s a big call. It will be interesting to see what happens. We want Jonny to do well and see how Ronan comes back from this. He hasn’t been dropped for an awful long time. He is a guy who has delivered time and time and time again for Ireland.
“I would expect him to do so again. We are not getting towards the end of Ronan O’Gara. There is a few years left in him yet.
“He is a guy who, every time he has been given a chance, has delivered time and time again.
“Declan (Kidney) had to make a call at some stage. We are blessed to have another out-half. We have been so lucky over the past 10 years that we have had no injuries to Ronan O’Gara.
“We are in a situation where we have guys playing well and you have to incentivise guys who are playing well, give them an opportunity.
“But people are wrong if they write Ronan O’Gara off now. Everybody gets dropped. It is absolutely the nature of the game. It’s guaranteed. It is how you get over it. You don’t have a Divine right to play, but Ronan will just come back stronger.”

The box seat
Keith Wood said he believed Sexton would be in the ‘box seat’ to start for Ireland in next year’s Six Nations championship should he perform well against South Africa and maintain his good form for Leinster over the next couple of months.
“There is a huge amount of games to be played between now and the start of the Six Nations. While Saturday’s match is a very big game for Ireland, but it isn’t one with a trophy dependant on it,” Keith Wood said.
“It makes the selection of Jonny (Sexton) an easier punt maybe than if we were playing against France in the Six Nations.
“If Jonny comes through this and plays unbelievably well, he then is in the box seat, without a shadow of a doubt, for the Six Nations. He has played well for nine months now. He got his chance with Leinster and with Ireland last weekend and has delivered very well. Each time he has done very well. We wish he would do well against South Africa.”

Good news for Keith Earls
While there was disappointment for one Munster player with team selection, there was good news for another, Keith Earls, who is included on the left wing to face South Africa.
Wood has been hugely impressed with the progress Earls has made in a short space of time.
The former Irish hooker said he would have the versatile Limerickman in the side, irrespective of the injury suffered by Luke Fitzgerald.
“I think Keith (Earls) is magic. He has a spark about him. You can see it in Thomond Park. Every time he touches the ball, there is a collective in-take of breath by the supporters. He has got something very special,” Keith Wood said.
“I would have had him in the side anyway. He was a young guy going out to South Africa with the Lions. I would say he came back with his eyes opened to what is out there in rugby.
“I thought his performance was phenomenal on the Lions tour. He may have had a rocky start, but it was the way he dealt with it.
“I remember talking to a chunk of the English press when they came back from the tour and they said he was one of the nicest guys they had ever come across.
“This is a guy who has been elevated to a very high position, touring with the Lions on almost his first year in big time rugby. He goes on a Lions tour and things don’t exactly go as well as he would have liked on the first week.
“But he fights tooth and nail, worked harder than anyone to get there in the end. He has earned the respect of every other player who was on that trip home with him.”
Wood believes Ireland have a fighting chance of sending the South Africans home from their tour of Europe on a losing note this weekend.
“On Saturday, I am hoping we make South Africa remember how much they want to go home. And they do want to go home,” Wood stressed.
“It has been a long year for them. And I hope we can give them a bit of a torrid day of it to remind them every single minute for 80 that these guys want to go home the next day.
“I hope we can win. I think we have a decent chance of winning.”

Colm Kinsella