RONAN O'GARA

'Ronan John Ross O'Gara' (born 7 March 1977, San Diego, California, USA) is an Irish rugby union footballer, occupying the position (usually called "out half" in Ireland and "first five-eighths" in New Zealand) for both Munster and Ireland. He toured with the Lions on their tours to Australia in 2001, and New Zealand in 2005 - although he only managed one Test cap (off the bench in the 3rd Test v New Zealand, 2005). Other caps include: Irish International, Ireland "A", Ireland U21, Munster Interprovincial, AIL 1998-99, Captained winning teams for Presentation Brothers College, Cork in Senior and Junior Cups.
O'Gara has earned the record of highest points scorer in the history of the European Rugby Cup, currently totalling over 800 points. O'Gara also recently became the 7th highest points scorer in the history of International rugby when he overtook Gavin Hastings total in Ireland's final match of their 2007 Six Nations campaign against Italy on 17 March 2007.
2006 was one of O'Gara's best seasons, overtaking David Humphreys' Ireland points record and winning the Triple Crown with Ireland in the Six Nations, as well as being an instrumental figure in Munster's Heineken Cup winning side and a third place finish in the Celtic League.
O'Gara is frequently referred to by both team-mates and fans alike with the moniker 'ROG' (pronounced Roj).

Contents

Notable deeds

External links

Notable deeds

★ O'Gara scored all of Ireland's points in a 17-12 win over the South Africa Springboks at Lansdowne Road on 13 November 2004.

★ Two weeks later (27 November), O'Gara kicks a last-minute drop goal to give Ireland a 21-19 victory over Argentina. As in the Springboks Test, O'Gara scored all of Ireland's points. O'Gara won the man-of-the-match awards against both South Africa and Argentina.

★ O'Gara scores all of Ireland's points in their 18-9 win over the Australian Wallabies at Lansdowne Road in the Autumn tests 2003.

★ O'Gara's last-minute conversion against Gloucester on 18 January 2003 helped Munster to a 27-point victory which took them through to the Heineken Cup Quarter Final against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road at the expense of Gloucester; This match against Gloucester has become etched into Munster Rugby's Folklore as: The "Miracle Match".

★ On Saturday the 19th of March 2005, O'Gara has a kick charged down by Welsh prop, Gethin Jenkins, who subsequently outruns O'Gara while dribbling the ball with his feet to score the opening try of the match that would determine 2006 Six Nations championship. O'Gara's performance was notable for a number of mistakes and visible loss of composure, although one personal positive to come from the match was that it almost certainly excused him from the obligation of playing first choice fly-half on the disastrous Lions tour to New Zealand later that year.

★ On Saturday the 21st of October 2006 O'Gara kicks a last minute penalty from inside his own half to hand Munster a 21-19 victory over Leicester in the first round of the pool stages at Welford Road, Leicester

★ On Saturday the 10th of March 2007, O'Gara once again scores all Ireland's points to win the Triple Crown at Murrayfield, Edinburgh versus Scotland by 19-18.

★ On 24 August 2007, in Ireland's final 2007 Rugby World Cup warm-up against Italy at Ravenhill in Belfast, O'Gara scores and converts a controversial try nine minutes into stoppage time, winning the match 23-20 after Italy had taken the lead with a stoppage-time try. O'Gara finishes with 18 points, including the winning points.

External links

★ Irish Rugby Football Union profile

★ Profile on itsrugby.co.uk