O'Gara to head up the Wasps sting operation
Munster out-half Ronan O'Gara covers the scars of last week's battle at yesterday's press conference
Thursday January 17 2008
Ronan O'Gara is still nursing the physical scars from last weekend's battle-royale in Clermont, but the Munster captain will be wearing a form of protective headgear for Saturday's must-win Heineken Pool Five clash against Wasps at Thomond Park.
While the wound in the area around his right ear was covered by a woolly hat at yesterday's press conference at UL, the Munster out-half said the injury won't deter him from participating in two days' time against the reigning European champions.
Victim
O'Gara has been the victim of a second violent act on the rugby field in the past 10 months -- last March he lay motionless in a Six Nations game against Scotland in Murrayfield, his face the colour blue after a choking incident.
The transgressor from last Sunday, Clermont flanker Alexandre Audebert, was cited for stamping on O'Gara at the final ruck prior to Mario Ledesma's first half try. O'Gara, however, displayed no emotion or bitterness towards Audebert -- though as a result of the stamping the Ireland out-half needed 20 stitches inserted between the back of his right ear and head. The incident, however, remains a blur, according to the Cork man.
"I don't really remember much to be honest," he said. "I was on the ground expecting to get up and then I got kinda stood on. To be fair to their fellow, I think he was jumping. I'm not saying that he stood on my head by any means."
If the physical scars are still visible then surely the mental scars from last season's defeat to Leicester Tigers at the same stage of the competition must still rankle, the English Premiership side becoming the first team to beat Munster in the Heineken Cup in Thomond Park. Not so, says O'Gara, whose darker days remain Ireland's Rugby World Cup performances in France.
"If that's ever going to leave you in a mental turmoil, that (the World Cup) would be the event that would do it," he reasoned. "But from the Munster players' point of view, we've got over that -- that's what this team has enabled us to do. So much happens in a week in sport you experience every kind of emotion in this game that I think those memories of the Leicester game are gone.
"The better team won that night. So much in rugby depends on the mental state and the forwards and I'm hopeful we're ready for this game. I think it's a big week for us and we will be up for it."
Wasps, however, will have studied the Leicester template of how to subdue Munster in their favourite ground and the Leicester defeat remains a reminder to O'Gara and his team-mates that Munster have no justified right to win in Thomond Park.
"That day is gone because in this group anybody can beat anyone away from home in any given day and I think that is what this group has shown. Because we're playing in Thomond Park and I know we'll have fantastic support, but it comes down to playing ability at the end of the day."
Triumph
Kidney echoed the sentiments of O'Gara in relation to the Thomond factor and expects Wasps to be unperturbed on what will be only their second ever visit in the Heineken Cup to Thomond (the other was in 1996 when Munster triumphed 49-23).
Kidney said: "The Leicester match is something that's historical and it's there to remind us that just because we step out in Thomond Park, it doesn't give us a God-given right to win anything, which means we have to have our performance right up there."
He added: "Experience tells us what we've got to try and do is to win a game against the reigning champions who have stated the fact that their goal is win three Heineken Cups.
"If you were to go out and get a certain type of result, I think that's a hurdle you could trip over quickly and we wouldn't be paying respect to the opposition.
He concluded: "I think to get a result against Wasps would be a great achievement."
- Edward Newman
