“I underperformed, I was terrible. The team was everywhere and I was as well.”
Ronan O’Gara has empathised with Ryan Giggs after the Manchester United legend revealed that he “never really enjoyed” being a professional footballer.
Earlier this week, Giggs spoke about the mental strain of playing for the biggest club in England for over 20 years, and former Munster and Ireland out-half O’Gara could relate to the difficulties faced by the Welshman.
Speaking on Wednesday night’s SportsJOE Live, O’Gara said: “I was lucky enough to play for a long time and it was only in the last two years where I said, ‘You’ve got to start enjoying this’.
“All of Ryan Giggs’ words resonate with me, he just cared so much about Manchester United that he took defeat personally. When you live in the bubble of a professional sportsman, you think that the whole world is watching you.
“At the 2007 World Cup I’d a desperate World Cup. I underperformed, I was terrible. The team was everywhere and I was as well. We went there with expectations that we could possibly win the World Cup and then to completely bomb personally, collectively, what a massive disappointment (that was).
O’Gara spoke of being ‘in a bubble’ on the field of play, of thinking all eyes are on you alone and how that can have a damaging effect on players’ psyches.
“There would be times you’d be thinking of (doing something drastic), that’s how low you get. It was the idea of letting people down and that’s the beauty of representing a team in Ireland, you’d feel that everyone in the stadium is just glued to you.
“If you’re kicking the ball, everyone’s eyes are fixed on you and you think that you’re way more important than you are. Then you go to the games as a supporter and half of them are drinking pints, they couldn’t care less!
“It’s important to see that but when you’re in the bubble of playing, you don’t appreciate that at all. In 2007 I was afraid of going out of my house; I can remember going up to Barrack Street in Cork and getting abused, and they were right to because I was crap!
“But, at the same time, Jesus, that’s not good.”
