Lion still looking for his ruthless streak

Ronan O'Gara has no wish to go down in history as a human punchbag. At 25, and having steadily risen through the ranks with Cork Constitution, Munster and Ireland, he has his best years ahead of him. But unwanted and unpalatable as it may be, O'Gara is thus far best remembered for being the subject of the most sickening and indelible image of last year's Lions tour to Australia.

O'Gara entered the Sydney Football Stadium as a replacement against New South Wales. He left it looking like he had bungee-jumped from the Harbour Bridge without the aid of a rope. Though hardly a colossus at 13st and 5ft 11in, he had taken out Duncan McRae on the edge of a ruck and suffered a response that was beyond belief. McRae unleashed a left-handed punch, followed by a dozen short right-handers as he pinned the Irishman to the turf. Photographs of the blood pouring down O'Gara's cheek, and the livid damage to his face flashed around the world.

McRae was banned for seven weeks. O'Gara, shocked and stitched up, recovered to produce an impressive but largely overlooked contribution to the final midweek win against the ACT Brumbies. His effortlessly effective passing off both hands helped create the decisive try for Austin Healey. As team-mates, they leapt all over each other in mutual celebration. This week, they will be opponents.

And here, too, O'Gara is carrying unwanted baggage. When Munster lost the 2000 Heineken Cup final by a point to Northampton, he missed a conversion which might have swung the result. The kick remains a hot topic of conversation but O'Gara has no regrets. "There's no guarantee that I'd have got it even if I'd taken it a second time," he said. "I struck it reasonably well but the wind took it away at the last. You cannot afford to get uptight if you're a goal-kicker." In open play, O'Gara suffered at the hands, feet and everything else of Northampton's back row, and he is well aware that Leicester, with Neil Back, Lewis Moody, Martin Corry and Josh Kronfeld at their disposal, are at least as strong in that department.

"We probably froze a little against Northampton," O'Gara said. "There was a lot of hype around the match, which was relatively new to us at the time. Maybe we thought getting to the final was enough. We're probably a little more streetwise now. We'll concentrate on the match rather than all the peripheral stuff."

Easier said than done. At home, O'Gara is a hero. Twice in the last few days, in Limerick and in Cork, Munster have thrown open their training sessions to school children, and O'Gara's is the autograph they all seek. The heavy lids above his doe-eyes flap shyly but patiently amid the siege. When accompanied by his much more naturally chirpy half-back partner, Peter Stringer, whom he has known since childhood, O'Gara appears all the more quiet and unassuming.

Among his many good days for Munster are last month's semi-final, when he outshone Castres' Scot, Gregor Townsend. O'Gara is the Heineken Cup's top scorer this season, with 120 points, and there was a collective intake of breath in the south-west of Ireland when he gashed his leg against Castres. After 13 stitches, and missing Cork Constitution's All-Ireland final against Shannon, he was back against Ulster in Munster's final warm-up match last week.

O'Gara attended Presentation Brothers' College [PBC] in Cork, where he was taught by Declan Kidney, later the Munster coach. Acccording to Tony Ward, the former Ireland fly-half and now broadcaster and journalist, the young O'Gara could not have had a better introduction to the game. "PBC is more or less on a par with Blackrock, which is Ireland's strongest rugby-playing school," said Ward. "Ronan had so much, so young, that without the right grounding he could have gone into a shell and said 'I've done it all'. Instead he has a very good attitude. He has got all the raw ingredients, but he is willing to learn. He wants to learn."

O'Gara set a Lions tour record with 26 points from 13 conversions on his debut, kicked an Irish Six Nations record 30 points against Italy in 2000, and his success rate in almost 20 Tests bears comparison with the world's best. But this season he was dropped after the calamitous defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield in September, and Ulster's David Humphreys has since held sway.

The rivalry prompts comparisons between Ward and Ollie Campbell, a generation ago. The ball-player versus the pragmatist? Ward is quick to point out one obvious flaw in the debate. "In those days it was a straight choice between me or Ollie. Now, the coach can do the 60-20 thing: pick Humphreys to start, and bring Ronan on for the last quarter, or vice versa."

Humphreys, says Ward, offers more threat to the opposition back row; plays closer to the gainline. O'Gara is the more dangerous in the midfield channels, a natural runner able to reduce the stiffest defensive lines to a pile of spaghetti. "Ronan has magnificent hands," Ward said. "This final is a big one for him. I think he had a poor game, that day against Northampton. I don't think he did himself justice."

O'Gara's career would be the envy of many, but he needs to avoid another inconsequential performance at the Millennium Stadium. If so, the Ireland jersey could be back in his possession for the two-Test trip to New Zealand in June. Another stage, another spotlight. "Blink your eye and it can be gone from you," O'Gara said. "Maybe Leicester were lucky when that kick went over against Llanelli, but they didn't panic. We have got to be just as ruthless."