Honesty is O’Gara’s best policy.
The former Munster and Ireland outhalf has revealed the time he had the most serious cause to doubt himself – the emergence of Johnny Sexton as a serious challenger to his jersey.
November 2009 and it was just over seven months since O’Gara had led Ireland to a Six Nations Grand Slam.
Confidence was not as high as it should have been, however, as the Cork native had returned from a losing Lions tour to South Africa.
“My kick had lost us the second Test,” he commented, “but, saying that, I think I made the right decision with the kick. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that.”
The last thing O’Gara expected, however, was to be pitched into a scrap for Ireland’s No.10 jersey.
“[Sexton] had played a semi-final [against Munster], the Heineken Cup final and a game against Fiji… I didn’t look upon him as a threat.”
Declan Kidney opted to start Sexton – then aged 24 – against world champions South Africa. Training, on the week of the game, was awkward.
“Johnny was making calls and the Munster forwards were saying ‘Here, do we have to run this?’
“I was thinking, ‘Fair play to you lads’ … That bank of work I had put in [in previous years] wasn’t forgotten.”
O’Gara did note, however, that he won back his starting spot in the 2011 World Cup.
O’Gara, who was speaking at the Bord Gáis Energy Leadership Conference, opened up about the “fickle” nature of sport:
“Someone once told me that, no matter what you do in the game, you will be remembered for your last three games.
“I had a shocker [for Ireland] against Scotland so I knew I had to get my act together. We weren’t expected to beat Harlequins at The Stoop but we did that with a typically Munster performance – we backed our gameplan.
“We lost out to Clermont in the semi-final but it would have been good to go out in a final.”
