I have never told this story about Ronan O'Gara before.

O'Gara's player stats are now reflected in the teams he coaches. Photo: Getty Images/David Rogers

I've never told this story before, but Ronan O'Gara once played a key role in preventing me from resigning during the Six Nations match when I was head coach Ireland national team.

That was in the past. in February 2000 and after a 50-18 loss to England at Twickenham, I decided to make changes to our next game against Scotland at Lansdowne Road.

I was under increasing pressure. Ireland lost 28–24 to Argentina in the 1999 World Cup quarter-final playoffs in Lance. It was a game that we had to win. We dominated the competition but missed a few opportunities and felt like we were given some tough challenges.

I stayed with the seniors in our first Six Nations game at Twickenham and although we did better than the score would suggest, I knew it was time to take a chance by starting five new caps, Munster trio O'Gara. , Peter Stringer and John Hayes, and Llanelli's flanker Simon Easterby and Shane Horgan of Leinster.

I also thought of Denis Hickey and Girvan Dempsey and Munster warhorse Mick Galvey, who was known to hug O&#39 ;Gara and Stringer as a proud father during the hymns.

The arrival of the young shooters heralded the evolution of what has come to be known as Ireland's «Golden Generation». who played with honors for the next decade. But it was not the most favorable start.

Shane Horgan, Peter Stringer, Simon Easterby, Ronan O'Gara and John Hayes are natives of Ireland #39;golden generation&# 39; Photo: Getty Images/Matt Browne.

In fact, when Scotland took a 10-0 lead from a penalty and converted a Kenny Logan attempt just 18 minutes later, I had already decided to give up at the end of the game.< /p>

I remember thinking, sitting in the stands next to my assistant Eddie O'Sullivan and team manager Donal Lenihan, “This is it; I'm going to retire at the end of this.»

It was one of the toughest moments of my coaching career, sitting around feeling helpless during a game and my time in Ireland seemed to slip away. away from me.

But O'Gara, fortunately, did not know about the mental anguish experienced by his head coach.

Despite the Scottish blitzkrieg, he put together a brilliant comeback that propelled us to a famous 44-22 victory, and the manner of the performance pushed me back from the abyss. After all, until now, I have not said a word about my thoughts about retiring.

What O'Gara and his Munster teammates brought at the time was mental toughness, despite to their inexperience. There may have been better players in Leinster, but the Munster boys knew how to win games.

I learned from this that it's important that players play with that kind of fire, passion and uncompromising attitude, even if they weren't always the best players.

O'Gara was a player who never shied away from a fight. was the best runner with the ball, but in terms of his ability to control the game, he was an outstanding player in Munster and Ireland.

He was a self-confident player and an equally critical fighter. It was the mental stamina that saw him win important matches by delivering goals at critical moments, scoring goals, taking penalties or turning the screw to drive his attackers into corners. He was very demanding of what he wanted and demanding of the players around him, and his competitiveness is equally evident now in his coaching, which has clearly reflected on his players from La Rochelle.

This advantage has sometimes gotten him into trouble with opposition coaches and officials in France because he speaks his mind and can be quite emotional at times. I know that there are certain lines that we should not cross as coaches, but I have always seen this desperation to win as a positive thing. It shows how much it means to him and what a rival animal he is.

Working with him again on the 2009 Lions tour, it was obvious that he would become a coach. He may have had a hard time after converting the decisive penalty in our second Test defeat against South Africa in Pretoria. He subsequently admitted he miscalculated the timing, but by then he had become incredibly knowledgeable about the game.

He was also not afraid to step out of his comfort zone, gaining coaching experience outside of Ireland and the UK, first at Racing 92 and then to the Crusaders in New Zealand as a defensive coach.

< p>Now he is doing well at La Rochelle, again in a foreign environment when it might have been easier to return to Ireland to coach Munster. Having won the European Cup final against Leinster last year and beating them in the semi-finals in 2021, I'm confident that ROG can repeat this success in Dublin on Saturday.

O'Gara La Rochelle defeated Leinster in last season's European Cup final. Photo: Getty Images/Lionel Hahn

Leo Cullen's team will suffer a bit from losing the URC semi-final to Munster last weekend when they put up what isn't considered their strongest side.

That's one of the problems they face in the URC, for most of the season they can make a lot of changes and still win games, but that's not necessary when the pressure is on in the semi-final and final stages and they face teams like this, like La Rochelle, who have the strength and fitness to be straight and challenge ahead.

Leinster lost to the Bulls in the URC semi-finals last year in the same way and again to the Saracens in the quarter-finals Champions Cup in 2020 at the Aviva Stadium.

< p>They will also ask themselves this question. They are due to perform on Saturday. Losing to Munster is far from ideal for their preparation this week, but they have a lot of firepower to come back and Leinster can also draw inspiration from their victory over Toulouse.

For that fact, they are my favorites, just . But ROG, just like in 2000, loves competition against all odds more than anything. And he, like no one else, knows how to offend Leinster.