MUNSTER out-half Ronan O’Gara believes the Magners League provides the province with the ideal opportunity to salvage something from the season following their bitterly disappointing Heineken Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Biarritz.
Munster face old rivals Leinster in a glamour Magners League semi-final play-off at the RDS on Saturday (8pm).
Munster will be hoping to end their three-game losing run against Michael Cheika’s men, including a crushing 30-0 defeat at the RDS last October.
Ronan O’Gara, who captained Munster against the Cardiff Blues on Sunday in the continuing absence of the injured Paul O’Connell, turned in a Man of the Match display. O’Gara kicked all 12 of Munster’s points in their one-point defeat to the Blues. However, the losing bonus point Munster secured ensured their passage into the inaugural play-offs.
O’Gara said: “It will be a big match next weekend. From our point of view it was the European Cup, but you have to try and salvage something from the season. We are looking at the Magners League.
“That is the great thing about sport. You are down, but you get back up. Now we have an opportunity again. It is strange. We are obviously disappointed that we lost (to Cardiff), but I suppose the big target was to make it through to the semi-finals.”
Munster have a number of injury worries ahead of Saturday’s clash. However the Munster management team is hopeful that Doug Howlett, Ian Dowling and Mick O’Driscoll will be available for the crucial trip to Dublin. Keith Earls remains a doubt for the game with a groin injury while captain Paul O’Connell is not expected to feature in the tie.
Key front-row forwards John Hayes and Jerry Flannery are set to return to the squad for the clash.
Meanwhile the Munster A squad is gearing up for Sunday’s British and Irish Cup final showdown with the Cornish Pirates at the Camborne Recreation Ground. Kick-off for the final is at 6pm and the game will be televised live on Sky Sports.
Munster remain the only unbeaten side in the inaugural British & Irish Cup having won all six of their encounters in the competition so far.
That run of form has been based on a formidable defensive effort which has seen the Munster men yield just three tries in 480 minutes playing time.
Sunday’s opponents, the Cornish Pirates, finished in sixth place in the RFU Championship table this season, but could not progress through their play-off pool to reach the semi-final stage.
The Pirates’ only victory in their last four matches in all competitions was the semi-final triumph in the British & Irish Cup at home to Doncaster Knights.
Colm Kinsella
Showing posts with label ronan o'gara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ronan o'gara. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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
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
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