Ireland face Romania at the Rugby World Cup this weekend but it’s fair to say that most of us have one eye on the Italy game and the other on the French clash the week after.
Speaking at the Bord Gáis Energy ‘Legendary Leadership Brings Success’ Conference at the Aviva Stadium this afternoon, former Irish out-half and current Racing Metro coach, Ronan O’Gara was confident about Ireland’s chances in what is expected to be the crunch Pool D clash against France on October 11.
Conor Brophy Jim Gavin, Billy Walsh and Ronan O’Gara at the Bord Gáis Energy ‘Legendary Leadership Brings Success’ Conference at the Aviva Stadium
“Short term focus is important. It’s a game against France, not a World Cup game against France,” O’Gara said.
“I think we can and we will beat France. You can’t think about it being a World Cup game, and if you do, you’re being controlled by external influences.
“The boss man there is a New Zealander and he expects to win. It’s a hugely exciting time. In the past we got spooked by the big event. Munster and Leinster have shown how to do it and now the natural progression is to kick on.
“There is a realisation now that we’re if not at the top, we’re near the top”
Asked by JOE how far he thought Joe Schmidt could lead Ireland at the World Cup, O’Gara was careful not to overhype their chances.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learnt, is keep your mouth shut until you’ve done it,” he said.
“I think there’s no pointing talking about it beforehand, that was the great point about the Grand Slam.
“It was another game but by God if we lost it we would’ve know all about it. There was no one in the dressing room who had any experience of winning a Grand Slam. Nowadays, Sean O’Brien, his generation expect to win a World Cup. I don’t think they’d be surprised but I don’t want to say that because it’s a stupid headline – ‘O’Gara tips thing’ – keep your head down, work and then talk about it afterwards.”
The conference panel, which also included Dublin manager, Jim Gavin and Irish boxing coach, Billy Walsh, was moderated by RTÉ’s Conor Brophy and there were several golden anecdotes from the Munster legend.
O’Gara on his biggest learning curve:
“My biggest learning curve was the 2001 Lions tour. I lived that for eight weeks. I was lucky because (Gregor) Townsend didn’t get picked. I had (Neil) Jenkins and (Jonny) Wilkinson ahead of me. You need to play the games rather than just learn the theory.
“I was happy with my work-rate in my own head and then you see Jonny and you see what his work-rate is. It accelerated my learning by five years because you had some of best ever English players and as a young fella you are like a sponge and you take it into your personality and tweak it.”
O’Gara on media coverage:
“You have George Hook commenting on a player Saturday at 5 o’clock, then you’ve a load of experts down the pub at 9 o’clock repeating his opinion, thinking it’s their point.
“Rugby is a complex game you have to understand the game, people see it differently so it’s important you get good feedback from people you trust. There was every possible rumour about me at one stage, after a while it didn’t bother me.”
O’Gara on Roy Keane saying Alex Ferguson’s best trait was to always have exactly what the team needed at a particular time:
“I’m still struggling to get over the fact that Alex Ferguson described Roy Keane as not world class!”
O’Gara on his biggest challenge as a 10:
“Dealing with Jonny Sexton as a rival. You become very confident in your position. Then a very good player comes in and your world is turned upside down and you have to adapt to that.
“I didn’t take it as a realistic threat at the start and that was probably me being overconfident but then it’s real. It’s done. You’re on the bench. Are you going to stay there for the rest of your career?
O’Gara on finishing up his career:
“I got great advice – you’ll be remembered for your last three games. I had a shocker against Scotland! I had to get my act together for Munster, we beat Harlequins unexpectedly over there, typical Munster performance.
“That was great motivation for me, people are fickle and they’ll remember you for that. It was great the way it finished in that regard.”
O’Gara on how the Munster pack treated Sexton when he the entered Irish set-up:
“Players are loyal too to teammates. Myself and Jonny would slag about it now having a cup of tea.
“Jonny would make a call like and the Munster forwards would be like, do I have to run that call for him?! And I’d be like – fair play to ye lads! It’s amazing how it works. A lot of work in the bank with these boys and fair play to them, they don’t forget it!
O’Gara on being a sub for Ireland:
“It’s better playing ten good minutes for Ireland than watching it on TV. Everything changes, you can have as much impact on a game in eight minutes as you can in 80.
“The biggest thing I found, because I had ten years as a starter and three years being pushed out the door, is that 90% of the people on the bench aren’t ready when the chance comes.
“They spend their time bitching and moaning – he’s not going to pick me – and when someone goes down in the warm-up with a hamstring injury, opportunity knocks, his head in the wrong space.”
O’Gara on the 2006 Heineken Cup game versus Leicester which Munster won 21-19 with a last minute penalty from ROG. The week preceding the game, The Guardian printed an interview in which he said Irish teams expect to beat English teams.
“The first thing is that I gave that interview in May and it was printed in October. The morning it was published, Deccie’s (Kidney) face was like a ghost thinking ‘that little fucker again’! It was an intense period of massive pressure so that’s a nice memory.”
O’Gara on what made him tick:
“Failure hurts, I had loads of failure, but I got to where I wanted and that’s what made me tick.”
Ronan O’Gara and Billy Walsh at the Bord Gáis Energy ‘Legendary Leadership Brings Success’ Conference at the Aviva Stadium
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
