A couple of weeks ago Ronan O'Gara declared he was all but finished with Ireland. O'Gara was sulking because he had lost his place in the side to Jonny Sexton. Now he is the key man in the side to play Italy in the Pool C decider.
A couple of weeks ago Ronan O'Gara had flung his unbranded mouthguard out of the cot. He declared he was all but finished with Ireland. O'Gara was sulking because he had lost his place in the side to Jonny Sexton. Now O'Gara is the key man in the side to play Italy in the Pool C decider.
Coach Declan Kidney has decided that Sexton is not to be trusted when it comes to sticking the ball between the posts. O'Gara's success rate at this World Cup is 10 out of 12, whereas Sexton's is five out of 13. Kidney may have a point. In order to accommodate his experienced fly-half, Kidney has replaced scrum-half Eoin Reddan with Conor Murray. It is only the second time that the 22-year-old has started for Ireland, but he is O'Gara's team-mate at Munster.
You suspect that this is something Kidney should have sorted out months ago. This is the seventh successive Test for which he has changed his half-back pairing and this is his fifth new combination in that time.
Kidney said: "I'd hate to go down the road we're picking Ronan because of his place-kicking. He's too good a player to be saying that about." It might be a tight game, just as it was in Rome during the Six Nations when Italy led with five minutes to go. You want to kick your goals, just as O'Gara did when he came on for Sexton in Rome. Fair enough. Why all this double talk?
Half-back is the one area where Ireland have a clear advantage, although it could have been bigger. The Italian scrum-half Fabio Semenzato is a decent player, but he might have felt under more pressure against a man of Reddan's experience. And can fly-half Luciano Orquera match up well enough against O'Gara? The Irish back row will come looking for the playmaker. If they get to him, then the match will be over as a contest.
There must also be a question over Italy's fitness. Ireland have had their own problems with Paul O'Connell's hamstring, but he is a casualty of rugby. Italy's problems are very much of the International Rugby Board's making. This was always going to be the decisive match of this pool and it is a scandal to allow Ireland two more days' rest than Italy. Alessandro Troncon, Italy's assistant coach, said: "This is a problem, because four days is not enough and the recovery is not only in the body, but with the head and the mind. For us against the USA it was life or death. Even the mental aspect was very demanding and intense. It is because of this that the four days are more concentrated on recovery, mentally and physically, and not much for training."
Ireland: R Kearney; T Bowe, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, K Earls; R O'Gara, C Murray; C Healy, R Best, M Ross, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, S Ferris, S O'Brien, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Cronin, T Court, D Ryan, D Leamy, E Reddan, J Sexton, A Trimble.
Italy: A Masi; T Benvenuti, G Canale, G Garcia, M Bergamasco; L Orquera, F Semenzato; S Perugini, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, Q Geldenhuys, C van Zyl, A Zanni, Mauro Bergamasco, S Parisse (capt). Replacements: F Ongaro, A lo Cicero, M Bortolami, P Derbyshire, E Gori, R Bocchino, L McLean.
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