ROG.

[suisse]

Hmmmm...... interesting post. Ronan O'Gara has always held a love-hate relationship with the rugby fans in this country, and yesterday will certainly add weight to the calls for him to be beheaded instantly. I've never been truely won over by him, and I think he has certainly been a darling of the media for the past decade, whereas true warriors of the game here, such as BOD, have had mud kicked in their faces many times in that period. His honesty in press conferences is rarely backed up with performances of note. His career is marked by moments of outstanding success, such as Grand Slams, Triple Crowns, Heineken Cups and Magners Leagues. However, there are also serious moments of disappointment such as the World Cup in 2007 and individual games like the England one this season for ROG to ever be considered a world class player.

However, if ROG retires, we are losing a 90 capped international, a seasoned and experienced pro with 3 Lions tours under his belt, plus numerous Championship and Heineken Cup campaigns. We can't afford to lose ROG. Why? Because who the f%~k else is there? Jonny "The Great White Hope" Sexton, who has really only contributed to 3 matches this season (one of those as a sub, and another against the Scarlets), and STILL uncapped. How can true rugby fans justify calling for him to resign in a position Ireland doesn't produce talent? We're not NZ, or SA, or France ffs. If France lose Freddie, they still have Beauxais, Skrela, JBE and Trinh-Duc. Who do we have? The uncapped Sexton and.................................................? Wake up for f%~k sake

[Dublinner]

Retire please.

Disastrous cameo that will haunt him for the rest of his days... but "retire please"?? What would be the point of that? Typical silly comment.

Agreed. Stupid comment. I feel really sorry for O'Gara. It was a bad bad error and it will haunt him for the rest of his days. He looked totally gutted afterwards

[sewa]

Classy stuff as always Dan.

[tones]

so much for that lucozade he's taking. awful display at the end. shocking.... philips should have gone wing or centre and ellis should have come on...not o'gara

hook in at centre would of made more sense no need to disrupt the back line that much then, he is pretty good in centre that way jones could of stayed where he was, hate to say it but we could of done with monye on the bench

To be honest I think the real problem was Williams on the bench - meant a masive reconstruction of the backline regardless of who he came on for and playing Bowe (not really a centre despite serious form) out of position. Hook should been on the bench for one of those two.

[tones]

Hmmmm...... interesting post. Ronan O'Gara has always held a love-hate relationship with the rugby fans in this country, and yesterday will certainly add weight to the calls for him to be beheaded instantly. I've never been truely won over by him, and I think he has certainly been a darling of the media for the past decade, whereas true warriors of the game here, such as BOD, have had mud kicked in their faces many times in that period. His honesty in press conferences is rarely backed up with performances of note. His career is marked by moments of outstanding success, such as Grand Slams, Triple Crowns, Heineken Cups and Magners Leagues. However, there are also serious moments of disappointment such as the World Cup in 2007 and individual games like the England one this season for ROG to ever be considered a world class player.

However, if ROG retires, we are losing a 90 capped international, a seasoned and experienced pro with 3 Lions tours under his belt, plus numerous Championship and Heineken Cup campaigns. We can't afford to lose ROG. Why? Because who the f%~k else is there? Jonny "The Great White Hope" Sexton, who has really only contributed to 3 matches this season (one of those as a sub, and another against the Scarlets), and STILL uncapped. How can true rugby fans justify calling for him to resign in a position Ireland doesn't produce talent? We're not NZ, or SA, or France ffs. If France lose Freddie, they still have Beauxais, Skrela, JBE and Trinh-Duc. Who do we have? The uncapped Sexton and.................................................? Wake up for f%~k sake

Great post, exactly. I was serious peeved with ROG again as it seemed t be another "talk the talk" but not "walk the walk" moment, but he still has a hell of a lot to offer. Interestingly listening to RTE there and the sports correspondent talking about ROG's great run of form during the 6 nations.....

[thecoolfreak]

Hmmmm...... interesting post. Ronan O'Gara has always held a love-hate relationship with the rugby fans in this country, and yesterday will certainly add weight to the calls for him to be beheaded instantly. I've never been truely won over by him, and I think he has certainly been a darling of the media for the past decade, whereas true warriors of the game here, such as BOD, have had mud kicked in their faces many times in that period. His honesty in press conferences is rarely backed up with performances of note. His career is marked by moments of outstanding success, such as Grand Slams, Triple Crowns, Heineken Cups and Magners Leagues. However, there are also serious moments of disappointment such as the World Cup in 2007 and individual games like the England one this season for ROG to ever be considered a world class player.

However, if ROG retires, we are losing a 90 capped international, a seasoned and experienced pro with 3 Lions tours under his belt, plus numerous Championship and Heineken Cup campaigns. We can't afford to lose ROG. Why? Because who the f%~k else is there? Jonny "The Great White Hope" Sexton, who has really only contributed to 3 matches this season (one of those as a sub, and another against the Scarlets), and STILL uncapped. How can true rugby fans justify calling for him to resign in a position Ireland doesn't produce talent? We're not NZ, or SA, or France ffs. If France lose Freddie, they still have Beauxais, Skrela, JBE and Trinh-Duc. Who do we have? The uncapped Sexton and.................................................? Wake up for f%~k sake

Great post and pretty much sums up my feelings. I've never been a massive fan of O'Gara but he has been a great player for Ireland down through the years and we owe a lot to him. He still has plenty to offer and he'll play an important role in the development of Sexton. He messed up yesterday but he's not the only one. Wallace made a big mistake for Pieterson's try and Roberts and BOD were all at sea for Habana's try. Mistakes were made all over the park yesterday but ROG's ones will be the ones focussed on

[[Jackass]]

Oh RO'G, RO'G, RO'G.....

He's getting to be a bigger liability by the day...what a disastor, missed tackle was shocking and penalty was stupid, knock or no knock...let's stop making excuses for the guy...

He's gone, he's past it, and his time is up...his goal kicking and tactical play aren't what they used to be, and his defence has deteriorated beyond belief...He needs to take up net ball or something, but he's too soft and delicate for this level, Sexton needs to step up now and bring some quality back into the Irish setup, which I've no doubt he will, as long as Kidney has the balls to make the call we all know he should.

[greengiant]

Fair enough, O'Gara does divide opinion. I just feel sorry that this 10 minutes of rugby is what he will be remembered for outside of these shores. IMHO It not what he deserves and it is unreasonable for any Leinster fan to use this to slaughter him. God knows, its bad enough to have to hear Stephen Jones ( I feel dirty just saying those two words ) the hack and the rabblerousing coterie of Irish bashers in the UK media like Barnes and Guscott, without our own jumping on the bandwagon.

[Isaac4leinster]

Calling for his retirement may sound harsh but to be fair it' a last straw kind of thing. I know I'm bias – I can't stand ROG and think he's got away with far too much over the last few years – but I do think he's no longer up to the job. He's done a lot for Irish rugby but his standard has dropped well short of the mark. Yes he got the drop goal in Wales, but look at his pros and cons over the 6 nations and you'll see the cons way outweigh the pros. It would be unfair to blame the loss solely on OG, but Jesus giving away a silly penno in the last minute, he has to be somewhat culpable. This is not just Leinster bias, I spoke to a dedicated Munster fan this morning who criticized Geech for having him even on the bench. He steps away from legitimate tackles yet gets involved in illegal ones. Ask Rob, BOD, Shaw, Roberts, Jones etc, after all the hard work and sublime talent they showed, do they blame him, and away from the cameras I can guarantee they'll rue his lack of thought for many a year to come. Calling for his retirement may seem cold, but that is a career defining moment, and he failed, yes he had good times, but he's cost Ireland, Munster and now the Lions as many games as he's saved. Sexon isn't the finished artical yet, but he's a bigger talent even at this developmental stage of his career than ROG is.

that's a great idea, i think he should retire too so then we loose 1 of the best kickers of the ball 1 of the best passers of the ball and the man who holds every record he could in europe, then bring in a young lad who has great potential hope he turns into the player we think he will and if he doesn't we can always bring ROG off the bench oh wait he's retired, so lets bring in keatly or maybe young humphries instead.
if ROG does retire it will be a massive loss to ireland and munster, no way he has lost more games than he has won have you never seen the passes he can trow to put away a runner or how many times he has kicked to the corner straight into an irish hand and then you have his accuracy out of hand to the line he is nowhere near retirement. i agree he is a very weak tackler and i am not his biggest fan either but as it stands there is no1 else, a good international team needs 2 out halves we have 1 and a half.
sexton needs to have o gara there it will push him on to be a better player and visa versa.
besides all that why should he retire he just got picked for the lions and won a grand slam with ireland this year, he should keep playing until he is not picked any more. he could easily play another 3 or 4 years and ireland don't have to pick him you do understand that is an option

I know I can't talk as my spelling and grammar is often wayward, but could you please make some sort of effort with it.


On another point, could all the usual suspect 'ROG tackle apologists' (notable by their absence) come forward and admit for once and for all that he can't f**king tackle. For the love of god please just admit it you stupid c**ts!

[true blue 06]

Classy stuff as always Dan.

wonder what you would say if ROG was a leinster player sewa, something similar i'd imagine...so what positive have you managed to take out of ROG's performance?

[Oldschool]

Hmmmm...... interesting post. Ronan O'Gara has always held a love-hate relationship with the rugby fans in this country, and yesterday will certainly add weight to the calls for him to be beheaded instantly. I've never been truely won over by him, and I think he has certainly been a darling of the media for the past decade, whereas true warriors of the game here, such as BOD, have had mud kicked in their faces many times in that period. His honesty in press conferences is rarely backed up with performances of note. His career is marked by moments of outstanding success, such as Grand Slams, Triple Crowns, Heineken Cups and Magners Leagues. However, there are also serious moments of disappointment such as the World Cup in 2007 and individual games like the England one this season for ROG to ever be considered a world class player.

However, if ROG retires, we are losing a 90 capped international, a seasoned and experienced pro with 3 Lions tours under his belt, plus numerous Championship and Heineken Cup campaigns. We can't afford to lose ROG. Why? Because who the f%~k else is there? Jonny "The Great White Hope" Sexton, who has really only contributed to 3 matches this season (one of those as a sub, and another against the Scarlets), and STILL uncapped. How can true rugby fans justify calling for him to resign in a position Ireland doesn't produce talent? We're not NZ, or SA, or France ffs. If France lose Freddie, they still have Beauxais, Skrela, JBE and Trinh-Duc. Who do we have? The uncapped Sexton and.................................................? Wake up for f%~k sake

Great post, exactly. I was serious peeved with ROG again as it seemed t be another "talk the talk" but not "walk the walk" moment, but he still has a hell of a lot to offer. Interestingly listening to RTE there and the sports correspondent talking about ROG's great run of form during the 6 nations.....

Ok then spell it out for us.
What exactly is he going to offer in the coming season to Munster and Ireland.
The one restraint I would impose, that you cannot use form that is more than 18 months old.

[true blue 06]

Hmmmm...... interesting post. Ronan O'Gara has always held a love-hate relationship with the rugby fans in this country, and yesterday will certainly add weight to the calls for him to be beheaded instantly. I've never been truely won over by him, and I think he has certainly been a darling of the media for the past decade, whereas true warriors of the game here, such as BOD, have had mud kicked in their faces many times in that period. His honesty in press conferences is rarely backed up with performances of note. His career is marked by moments of outstanding success, such as Grand Slams, Triple Crowns, Heineken Cups and Magners Leagues. However, there are also serious moments of disappointment such as the World Cup in 2007 and individual games like the England one this season for ROG to ever be considered a world class player.

However, if ROG retires, we are losing a 90 capped international, a seasoned and experienced pro with 3 Lions tours under his belt, plus numerous Championship and Heineken Cup campaigns. We can't afford to lose ROG. Why? Because who the f%~k else is there? Jonny "The Great White Hope" Sexton, who has really only contributed to 3 matches this season (one of those as a sub, and another against the Scarlets), and STILL uncapped. How can true rugby fans justify calling for him to resign in a position Ireland doesn't produce talent? We're not NZ, or SA, or France ffs. If France lose Freddie, they still have Beauxais, Skrela, JBE and Trinh-Duc. Who do we have? The uncapped Sexton and.................................................? Wake up for f%~k sake

Great post, exactly. I was serious peeved with ROG again as it seemed t be another "talk the talk" but not "walk the walk" moment, but he still has a hell of a lot to offer. Interestingly listening to RTE there and the sports correspondent talking about ROG's great run of form during the 6 nations.....

Ok then spell it out for us.
What exactly is he going to offer in the coming season to Munster and Ireland.
The one restraint I would impose, that you cannot use form that is more than 18 months old.

i think it was the sunday tribune player rankings, they gave ROG a very generous 4/10 considering he did not do one thing right in the game, anyway they said somehting along the lines of a 'poor performance , a sad ending to a brilliant year ' . ROG has had a terrible year

[Oldschool]

Just remember it was McGeechan et all who had ROG on the bench with Williams.
Hook and D'Arcy should have been the bench replacements.
just as in the first test, the coach blew it in selection terms.

[gfo]

before everyone starts calling for his head, I'll remind everyone that Drico suffered a dip in form recently and people were calling for him to be dropped. ROG *can* recover.

My feelings on Ronan are that he can't tackle, can't break a line, is a complete me feiner (the amount of times he's taken a difficult kick that a left-footed Super Rob could easily take/general unwillingness to play anything besides the ROG kicking game/complaining publicly when Reddan was playing in Ireland games that he wasn't getting enough ball from Reddan)
Great f%~king kicker when he's on form though, and I've always believed that it doesn't matter if an outhalf can sprint, tackle, catch high balls, score tries and spin the ball off both hands, the best kicker should be No. 10.

I feel bad for him though, after beating Jones in the last match of the Six Nations, he's not good enough to play at 10 for the Lions. He wasn't even given a chance. And Johno is now a lot, lot closer to taking his Irish spot.

Although none of this changes the fact that he played like muck in the 12 minutes he was on

[bootlace]

Agree that ROG is one of those players who does divide opinion,petulance aside though,he up to this moment has been our outhalf,very few real contenders and I know EOS did his best to ensure there would be no viable replacements,who should replace him should have it's own thread.Yesterday he came on amongst a glut of enforced substitutions,which would have disrupted the most disciplined defences,he took a very nasty hit to his head,probably concussed,definitely dizzy by the look of him,and requiring stiches,to his eyebrow,maybe the selection of the bench is up to debate,but don't think we lost purely on ROGs performance.I'm sure the Lions could all do with a bit of a lift from the fans,yesterday was a great game to watch

[sewa]

Classy stuff as always Dan.

wonder what you would say if ROG was a leinster player sewa, something similar i'd imagine...so what positive have you managed to take out of ROG's performance?

Not a whole lot positive to take out of a bad missed tackle and a rash challenge which cost us a crucial penalty. I still dont think he is solely to blame. Its a team game and people sometimes make those mistakes. Particularly after they have taken a bad knock to the head which he clearly had. So no not a lot positive but he is still a guy who has delivered for Ireland and Munster when the pressure was on time and time again

[suisse]

Ok then spell it out for us.
What exactly is he going to offer in the coming season to Munster and Ireland.
The one restraint I would impose, that you cannot use form that is more than 18 months old.

Another option at fly-half, and, potentially, the only option if Sexton is injured or fails.

We don't produce fly halves like back rows, so when we have one, do you not think we should hold onto him? Like him or loathe him, we have no-one else.

[Terraceman]

Think that saying O'Gara's career is over is a bit premature. And like most people I feel both sorry for him but very frustrated.

If Ireland are looking towards 2011and finally delivering in the World cup then Kidney must accpet that O'Gara isn't up to it at the very top level. There is a great difference between test rugby against Southern Hemisphere opposition and playing in the 6 nations. The only hope is that Sexton can improve his form to become an outhalf who can constantly compete at that level. Even if his top form doesn't reach that of O'Gara's if he is more consistent than O'Gara he should play.

There's only one way he can prepare and that is playing regular 6 nations rugby. Drop O'Gara if we want to have a decent chance at the world cup. He has choked at the highest level too many times!!!

[Terraceman]

God knows, its bad enough to have to hear Stephen Jones ( I feel dirty just saying those two words ) the hack and the rabblerousing coterie of Irish bashers in the UK media like Barnes and Guscott, without our own jumping on the bandwagon.

In fairness Sky Sports rarely slate Ireland. Barnes didn't even single out O'Gara at the end and is forever blowing O'Driscoll's trumpet.Stephen Jones talks some sh!t but come on they're commentators and with a performance like that his ability to compete at the highest level has to be questioned.

[greengiant]

[quote="Terraceman In fairness Sky Sports rarely slate Ireland. Barnes didn't even single out O'Gara at the end and is forever blowing O'Driscoll's trumpet.Stephen Jones talks some sh!t but come on they're commentators and with a performance like that his ability to compete at the highest level has to be questioned.[/quote]

Hi Terraceman...Its more what Barnes writes in his Times column but I'd say that I'm not over enamoured with his Sky Sports work either. Jones is a hack who is controversial at the expense of being informative or insightful. He wasnt having BOD or POC in his Lions squad. He should write in the Sunday Sport where he'd be at home among tits ( sorry couldn't resist ).

O'Gara has competed at the top level for all of his career....albeit all of the Irish current bunch are relatively lucky that there is such a good crop of Irish at the moment.