O'Gara ready to renew battle with Sexton

RUGBY NEWS ROUND-UP:A BURNISHED Ronan O'Gara arrives with a tale to tell. Early sun, hard ground and the Irish team in Maynooth. Luxury. O'Gara strides into the room in a good mood, having missed the last 10 days training with an injury to his kicking leg.

Unworried with the summer stretched ahead, the Irish outhalf may have sat out the start of Ireland’s World Cup preparations but with two RWCs under his belt and a third in New Zealand in September a certainty, O’Gara’s experience tells him that a July muscle event is much the better deal than one in late August.

“You couldn’t have a much better time really if you want an injury – and I haven’t had a soft tissue injury in years – so it’s just a case of having to be careful,” he says.

“I hurt myself on the last day in Carton House, a calf strain. I just pushed the body so hard first week back. I reckon I’ve twinged it. Nearly back, hopefully back tomorrow. So for the last 10 days I haven’t done much running, anything but.”

It means a little catch-up with the rest of the squad and assuming his mid-range tear is carefully managed and offers no complications, O’Gara’s preparation will be as many people expect it to be, an ongoing glorious duel with Leinster’s Jonathan Sexton.

“It’s a 1.5 tear so it’s . . . three is the worst and one is the least so it was a minor tear,” adds O’Gara. “The danger is trying to come back too soon and then you could be back to square one. You’ve got to push it as far as you can, always leaving that small little bit of room for improvement for the next session.

“I have had a lot or rehab. I think with all these things it’s a case of you getting to work with other aspects, so yeah most definitely (playing catch up). The lads will have had four heavy fitness sessions on me so I’ll have to make them up.

“Something like that wouldn’t cost me too much of a thought. There are all different potential ways of looking at that. But I’d be thinking along the lines that yeah, I’ve work to make up.”

Which leg?

“Right.”

Kicking leg?

“Yeah. But that doesn’t have really much effect because your planting leg is probably more important for kicking.”

There it is. Issue number one for O’Gara, the player that seems to be at the centre of most things, whether it’s a last-minute drop goal or the shirt contest, or even his generally candid opinions, which are always courted by the media.

“There is the jersey up for grabs, there is two of us fighting for it,” he agrees. “It’s interesting. There is going to be different opinions from different people. It goes back to clichés, I’ll control what I can control, he (Sexton) will too. I’m looking forward to it.

“I couldn’t be happier with the way things are going. I’ll be looking to make an impact and that is the bottom line. I’ll make sure I’m in good condition physically and mentally and I haven’t really thought about the competition for the jersey.

“What sport has told me is it’s very rare that I don’t have an impact in games and I’ve got to be ready for that. There will, hopefully, come a time in the World Cup that I’m needed, whether it is to start games or come on and win games. It’s all to play for. It just makes the debate more appealing to everyone at this stage.”

He points out that Leinster were very strong last season but that Munster came back at the end and beat the Heineken Cup winners for the Magners League title. He says if your team is performing it usually reflects well on the outhalf.

Teams and selectors are mindful if the team is functioning, the 10 must be a positive controlling influence. He also has his own decorated history to tell him that things always happen in a World Cup competition.

“I think the logic is that both of us are going to have roles,” he explains further. “You can’t be pig headed about it and say you want to start and finish every game. That’s not realistic. The competition will bring out the best in the two of us and let’s see what happens.”

It seems as though there has always been a squabble over the number 10 shirt. O’Gara has been there for a decade and knows the narrative well.

“Yeah, I suppose,” he says. “But in my head there was only one person and that’s the change I have to make. But if I lose that then you lose your ruthless streak. I can’t lose that. I have to believe I’m the best and Jonny has to believe he’s the best.”

And this is only chapter one.