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Extra.ie
4 days ago
- Sport
- Extra.ie
TV View: Ronan O'Gara and rest of Sky Sports pundits left underwhelmed by 'flat' Lions Test
Rugby has really missed Sky Sports. Yes, the British broadcasting giants can go over the top. Some of their coverage verges on the hysterical at times. But, boy, can they get viewers excited and engaged ahead of a big match. Yesterday's first Lions Test was no different. From the moment Wolfmother's adrenaline-pumping anthem 'Joker and the Thief' came pumping out during the opening credits, the stall was set out. Warren Gatland. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan Warren Gatland lead a stellar cast of pundits pitchside at a heaving Suncorp Stadium. 'The greatest rugby supporters in the world are in full voice,' said Sky Sports presenter Alex Payne as he passed the torch over to Miles Harrison, Dan Biggar and Ronan O'Gara in the commentary box. Anyone who has ever been to a Top14 or ProD2 game in France would challenge that viewpoint. Anyway, we digress. Ronan O'Gara. Pic: Sky Sports There's something comforting about having Harrison on comms. The voice of so many great Lions moments as well as many heady Heineken Cup days, he was in fine form yesterday. Biggar and O'Gara, meanwhile, have proven an inspired choice on co-commentary duties. The former Test fly-halves mixing insightful analysis with plenty of good humour. Dan Biggar. Pic: Sky Sports Both were full of praise for Finn Russell during that dominant first quarter. Game recognises game. As for some of Andy Farrell's selection calls, Biggar backed the Lions boss. Finn Russell. Pic: Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images 'Beirne has big games in big games,' said the former Wales out-half after the Munster man snagged his second turnover penalty in the space of 18 minutes. ROG was living every second of this Test match. 'No!' was O'Gara blunt assessment when he saw Jake Gordon shaping to dink a kick behind this suffocating Lions blitz defence. Hugo Keenan duly fielded the ensuing chip with ease. Australia's Nick Frost and Tadhg Beirne of the Lions compete for a lineout. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie But it soon became clear that this was not going to be a Test epic and you could hear O'Gara and Biggar beginning to wane. 'Australia just can't get any momentum,' was the view of Sam Warburton back in the Sky studio. Gatland didn't see much hope for the hosts either during the half-time analysis. 'I'd be pretty happy. The dominance is starting to show in terms of gainline, carries. Australia are hanging in there. They need to score early in the second half. Otherwise this could be a bit of a blowout.' Dan Sheehan scores a try. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan Cue Dan Sheehan crossing after about 90 seconds. Game over. The energy seemed to drain out of Biggar and O'Gara after that. It was becoming obvious that this first game – and perhaps the entire Test series – is going to be one-way traffic. Then Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii seemingly barged his way through Ben Earl and Bundee Aki, two of the second-half cavalry, to give the ailing Aussies a glimmer of hope on the hour mark. No try in the end. It was that kind of night for the hosts. 'Tadhg Beirne is made of concrete,' O'Gara noted as the Wallabies continued to run into a red wall of Lions defenders. In the end, the hosts managed a few consolation scores, but this never really felt like a real contest. 'It just feels a bit flat doesn't it,' Biggar observed in the dying minutes of this encounter. Few would argue with the Welshman's assessment. Even Sky Sports were struggling to hype up what was essentially a non event.
Irish Daily Mirror
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Ronan O'Gara chooses his Lions XV - and there is no room for Sheehan and Furlong
Ronan O'Gara has chosen nine Irish players in his starting XV for the British and Irish Lions' opening test against Australia. The Lions are gearing up for their opening test next weekend when they will take on the Aussies in Brisbane. And La Rochelle head coach O'Gara has weighed in with his squad for the first Test, with perhaps the most surprising element the absence of Irish pair Tadhg Furlong and Dan Sheehan from the front row. "I suppose the first thing is, where's Tadhg Furlong and where's Dan Sheehan?" O'Gara said on Sky Sports. "For me, they're the two best in the world in their position so I'd like to finish the game with them just to have that security to know that a Test game is usually won in the last eight to 12 minutes, because a team is rarely two scores ahead. "In that regard, I went with that logic. "It can be picked apart, obviously, but I just think for me, I prefer to finish with the strongest 15 as opposed to starting with it. But maybe Sheehan and Furlong can go 80 minutes, there are tiny margins. "Andrew Porter is an exceptional loosehead, I think that's an area of massive strength. I've gone with familiarity in the back-row [Ireland trio Beirne, Van der Flier, Conan], because I think the bench impact of Ben Earl and Henry Pollock just adds an awful lot to it, with probably the benefit of them covering as centres as well. I like what they do as hybrids." O'Gara has opted for the centre pairing of Bundee Aki and Scotland's Huw Jones, while Hugo Keenan gets the nod at full-back. And he believes Owen Farrell deserves a place on the bench as a utility back. He said: "In the backs, it's pretty straightforward. There's obviously a big debate in terms of who do you play at 12 if you're going with Huw Jones at 13, as Garry Ringrose is ruled out through injury," he said. "Do you go Sione Tuipulotu? Do you go Bundee Aki? You could go either way. "Do you back yourself and just go: 'Go boy, go play. Show what you're good at.' I think Aki's the best in the world at winning gain-line. He gives front foot ball. "He makes the front-five get on the ball in the second phase with winning a gain-line. The game is so much easier when you win collisions." O'Gara's British and Irish Lions: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 3 Will Stuart, 4 Maro Itoje (c), 5 Joe McCarthy, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Jack Conan. Replacements: 16 Dan Sheehan, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Tadhg Furlong, 19 James Ryan, 20 Ben Earl, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Alex Mitchell, 23 Owen Farrell.
Wales Online
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Wales Online
Lions v Waratahs match was rocked by act of violence never seen before
Lions v Waratahs match was rocked by act of violence never seen before The British and Irish Lions faced the New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney - but the match will forever be remembered for an appalling assault Duncan McRae repeatedly punches stricken Ronan O'Gara Rugby, by its very nature, is a game where legal physical violence is par for the course. Every now and then, though, the line is crossed beyond the acceptable physicality that is integral to the game. In June, 2001, when the Lions visited Australia, the tour was rocked by an assault so abhorent, few had seen its like before on a rugby pitch. It came during a match against New South Wales Waratahs, who the Lions play this Saturday, with Aussie play Duncan McRae disgracing himself and going down in history for the wrong reasons. The match will forever be infamous for the shocking assault by McRae on Ronan O'Gara, which saw the Waratahs' player land 11 punches on the Lions fly-half's face. It resembled cage-fighting without the cage, but with only one man doing the fighting - O'Gara simply endured the beating. Appearing at a press conference the next evening, his left eye blackened and stitches inserted into a severe cut, he looked as if he had gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson circa 1988. Yet for what Lions team manager Donal Lenihan described as "the most vicious assault that we have seen in a game of rugby since it went professional", McRae didn't exactly face severe punishment. Article continues below He was banned for seven weeks. With the Australian season ending, it effectively amounted to a zero-game ban. First and foremost, it's crucial to acknowledge that nothing justifies an attack of the nature McRae launched on O'Gara. While O'Gara may not have won over everyone with his personality over the years, being sharp-tongued and quick-witted, sometimes provoking opponents to react irrationally, that's still no excuse. The 2001 Waratahs-Lions match had been a heated, physical affair from the start, with Tom Bowman, the home lock, receiving a yellow card in the early stages for elbowing Danny Grewcock in the face. Grewcock, never known for being a saint, didn't take kindly to the treatment dished out a week before the first Test. He, along with Phil Vickery, received a yellow card during the game, and two Australian players were also booked. You know a match has reached a boiling point when Martin Johnson remarks afterwards, "It got a bit crazy out there." Even amid the chaos, bumps, and stray elbows, McRae's actions stood out as particularly egregious. O'Gara had successfully cleared McRae out at a ruck ("I thought I did that quite effectively," he commented the following evening). Perhaps too hard-hitting for McRae's liking. The Australian lashed out at the Lions number 10 on the pitch, delivering blows right into the Irishman's face with relentless ferocity that left viewers stunned.. Ronan O'Gara leaves the field after the awful assault on him Inside the stadium, it felt like an eternity as the scene played out before the spectators. Referee Scott Young gave McRae his marching orders. Outside of the sporting venue, such actions would likely have resulted in police intervention. What happened afterwards There was a call for thorough denunciation and a clear-cut apology, but it failed to materialise. Waratahs head coach Bob Dwyer commented: "O'Gara used an elbow and lashed out with his boot on the ground. "Duncan took offence and decided to square it up." It was a skewed assessment of events, to say the least. Lions team manager Lenihan expressed later: "I was disappointed with the way the Waratahs management tried to defend the incident, not least because they were defending the indefensible. "What irked me the most was that McRae stayed silent towards Ronan. No effort to apologise was there, which I found utterly subpar in those circumstances. They attempted to justify McRae's retaliatory stance, when admission of guilt would have been the more respectable course of action." O'Gara remarked: "It's his decision whether he apologises or not." Ronan O'Gara tends to his injured face (Image: Dave Rogers/ALLSPORT ) O'Gara looked back on the harrowing episode in his memoirs, his anger undiminished by time. "We were attacking inside their 22, I passed to Woody (Keith Wood) and he took it up close to their 5-metre line. Two of their guys brought Woody down. One of them was Duncan McRae. "As the ruck was forming I followed up and shoved him. Next thing I knew I was on the ground and McRae was pucking the head off me. "After the first dig I thought it was going to stop any second but they kept coming. Nine. Ten. Eleven. A frenzy of digs. One after another after another. I just lay there and took it. It was the weirdest feeling. Lying there I felt totally lost. Like I was in a daze. "Even though he was on top of me, I wasn't pinned down. I tried to protect my face with my right arm and after a couple of seconds I grabbed the back of his jersey with my left. Useless. Pointless. Why? Why didn't I try to push him off? Hit him. Something. Why did I just take it?". "Two lacerations under my left eye needed eight stitches but the pain of that was nothing compared to the humiliation. Why didn't I try to defend myself? In the dressing room I was f*****g raging. Raging with myself. Raging with McRae. When the game was over I wanted to go into their dressing room and have a cut off him." McRae's take.... In a 2013 interview with the Daily Mail, former rugby full-back McRae looked back on the notorious clash: "'Me and Ronan crossed paths a few times in the build-up to that moment. We got involved, but I ended up taking it to the wrong level. He's a fiery bloke and I'm a fiery bloke, so no-one's going to back down. None of the Lions backed down that night. "He and I know what happened in there. He did something, I saw red, he was below me and the rest is history. That's what I'm known for now and I have to live with that. In hindsight, I wish it hadn't got to that point but I can't change it now – what's done is done." Duncan McRae of the Waratahs smiles at referee Scott Young after he was sent off Subsequent rumours hinted at death threats from Ireland and altercations when he was spotted on the streets. An opportunity for a direct apology arose during a Heineken Cup match between Gloucester and Munster in 2003 but it went unexploited. McRae commented: "I haven't spoken to him personally," and admitted post-match, "When that game against Munster finished I just got back on the bus and didn't get an opportunity to speak to him." Regarding any lingering resentment, McRae said: "You would have to ask him if there is a grudge, but I live in Australia and he lives in Ireland, and that's the end of it." Although he had apologised for the incident previously, it was never directly to O'Gara. The piece concluded, possibly evoking the sentiments expressed by Austin Healy so many years prior. "Duncan took exception to the fact that someone did something perfectly legal to him and decided to punch him 11 times in the face," Healey commented. "Cowardly would be the most appropriate way to sum it up." They suggest McRae is a decent bloke. But that night in Sydney, he lost his cool. The subsequent season's Rugby Annual for Wales described his behaviour as "an impressive impersonation of an enraged street-fighter". Bob Dwyer's perspective on the incident? "I would say excessive force would be the police interpretation." Article continues below An understatement if ever there was one.
Irish Examiner
25-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Ronan O'Gara: Lions ambition remains but 'chasing a Test job isn't interesting anymore'
Ronan O'Gara says coaching the Lions remains an ambition but the foreseeable future is all about La Rochelle. O'Gara's side finished seventh in this season's Top 14, one spot outside the playoffs in a turbulent campaign which saw them go 105 days without a win. La Rochelle have won two Champions Cup title under O'Gara but the Top 14 crown has remained elusive. The Munster legend has been linked with international jobs in recent times, including England and Australia, but says chasing those roles no longer interests him. "Of course," said O'Gara when asked about coaching the Lions, "but time is ticking and ticking fast, as we all know! In the last 12 months, I'm at peace with what I'm doing here. I'm very excited about what I'm doing here. I want to try and go after a Bouclier next season. That, for me, is the short, middle and long term. "Chasing a Test job isn't interesting anymore. I got distracted and gave energy to that, and it serves no one well. For me, I'll be the best version of myself here. If it goes anywhere else, so be it. If not, I'm very content." Argentina has regularly been suggested as a possible addition to the traditional Lions Test series rotation of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. O'Gara was impressed with the Pumas' in their victory over the Lions on Friday but another possible stop on the tourists' orbit excites him more. "Sure everything now is changing in sport, and that's the beauty of it," said O'Gara. "You want to respect tradition, you want to keep those values, but straight away, you look at Argentina - what about going to France, you know? "There would be some hot-beds over here for it. The appetite for rugby over here is incredible, and the British and Irish Lions are big in France as well. "It would become only bigger if you had a team led by someone like Dupont going against them. It makes it very, very exciting. "I think there is preliminary discussions, and it's about growing the game. For me, France, Argentina, you can't rule out anywhere in the US as well because there's a big appetite for it over there as well."
Irish Examiner
24-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Ronan O'Gara: The best player in Lions series won't be in red
Ronan O'Gara has no doubt about how seriously the Wallabies are taking this summer's Test series against the Lions. The La Rochelle head coach's certainty stems from negotiations with Australian players ahead of the new season. An extra summer month in France sounds appealing but there's a greater draw in Oz. 'The easiest way to explain it basically is, if you're trying to recruit players, none of the Australians are interested in coming before the end of August,' O'Gara explained. 'Why is that? Because of the Lions Test series. It comes across once in their career, once every 12 years.' Will Skelton was 21, and still a year away from making his Wallabies debut, when the Lions last toured Australia. O'Gara accepts that he may be biased but he believes that of all the players involved in the upcoming series, the 6' 8" lock's impact towers above the rest. 'The biggest star or essentially the best rugby player is in green and gold,' said O'Gara, who has coached Skelton at La Rochelle since 2020. 'I don't think he's in red. Will Skelton, I don't think any team in the world has a second row like that because he's a phenomenal player but he's an even better person. 'Since last May, he's been targeting this series to show the world… The world's eyes will be on this series and this is something Will has targeted, and when Will targets something, he usually doesn't disappoint. When he's in the second row, it's a massive weapon for Australian rugby.' O'Gara, a three-time tourist with the Lions, will be part of the Sky Sports punditry team for the tour. He views it not simply as a job he enjoys but also an opportunity for personal growth. Some attend webinars for their continuing personal development. O'Gara's CPD will happen on live television. 'Are you a better coach from having listened to the opinions of other people that you're working with, with the amount of footage that you're watching, and with potentially a suggestion someone might say? You're growing your mind and you're getting better. 'I think my role isn't to slate people, never would that come into my head because I don't have to do that thankfully. Some people are given the role of bad cop to do these kind of jobs.' O'Gara believes Friday's defeat to Argentina changes the first two weeks of the tour Down Under. The Lions would have been expecting to travel with the momentum of victory and a rousing send-off from the Dublin crowd. Instead, they've got to jump start it all against Western Force on Saturday. 'I think in camp it's a lot easier to deal with than maybe on the outside because sometimes perception isn't reality,' said O'Gara, 'because in camp they want to win a Test series and the Test series is a long, long way away. 'Everyone - me included - was particularly impressed with how Argentina attacked off turnover ball and they cut teams apart and you can see the difference between having, shall we say, an out-and-out established '15' and a Marcus Smith candidate and the fact that if you're a little bit off with your timing or your placement it transpires into, on one or two occasions, tries at Test level.' That Lions camp includes Johnny Sexton. Being part of the Lions coaching ticket is the pinnacle of their career for many. Sexton has reached that apex just two years on from retirement, and far less into his coaching journey. 'He's a master brain, that's for certain,' said O'Gara. 'Spending time with him, you understand, he sees the game really easily. There was obviously a hullabaloo when he was named in the coaching squad because people were saying he skipped all those courses to get where he is. Rugby is becoming very much like soccer where it becomes a management team. 'When you understand and you trust people you work with, like Andy Farrell with Simon Easterby, Goody (Andrew Goodman), Paulie (Paul O'Connell), Fogs (John Fogarty)... when his number 10 (for Ireland) was Johnny Sexton, it's very normal and a no-brainer for him to come on board. 'It's about relationships and it's about connecting with people more so than a strategy point of view, especially in such a short window. I would be like Andy Farrell in that regard too: I'm not too worried about the title, I just want to get people into the environment and if they're good with people, then it should shine.' O'Gara's knowledge of the Australian game has its foundations in the 18 months he spent coaching New Zealand side Crusaders in Super Rugby. It gave him an appreciation for the level of athlete which Australia produces. 'They have a huge sporting tradition, and it would be very foolish to fall into the camp of 'they're eighth-ranked in the world'," he said. "They'll have a huge surge. Whether it's good enough to beat an on-form Lions team, you can easily question that, but they have a master coach (Joe Schmidt) in terms of organising them, putting structure on them, and giving them direction. 'And a lot of them are very, very natural footballers, so when you combine that with their athleticism, I think they become very dangerous. I think what you wouldn't want to underestimate is Australia, whether it's (Aussie) rules, (rugby) league, soccer, golfers, they are phenomenal athletes. 'You look at Jospeh Sua'ali'i in midfield, his range of skills are fascinating. A lot of them are athletes and then rugby players. You think of Pete Samu in Bordeaux who I coached in the Crusaders. They're very, very dangerous when they get the rugby combined with their athleticism. They will pose problems, a lot more problems than people think.' Watch every game of the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, including all three Test matches against the Wallabies, exclusively live on Sky Sports and NOW.
