Ronan O'Gara was on OTBAM discussing Crusaders' recent performance against the Hurricanes.
The former Munster and Ireland out-half admitted that he wasn’t able to remain comfortable at any point in the match with the opposition on their tail throughout.
“I think usually when you don’t put a team away it comes back to bite you and I think if they had scored off that last play they would have deserved it.”
“Then I reviewed the game. I think we had four opportunities from seven meters or less between the 20th and the 33rd minute where we could have scored a try which would have made it 17-0 or nearly 20-0.”
The side's failure to take those early opportunities did prove to be an issue for them which ultimately allowed the Hurricanes to get back in the game.
It makes for a different team talk when it’s 13-0 and suddenly they score in the last play of the game for 13-7 and they haven’t really been in the game.”
“Two minutes into the second half a bit of magic from TJ Perenara put Ben Lam away down the blindside and then Beauden Barrett has a conversion for them and you’re like ‘but we’ve been controlling this game and we’re not ahead on the scoreboard.’”
The question of abandoning a game plan when it’s not working then came up but O'Gara was confident that his side had been performing well and was still being provided the opportunity to do their own thing, while still following the game plan.
“For 39 minutes we were really good. Even at 13-0 you’d be very happy but 13-7 is very different and they really maximised their opportunities to score but no, there isn’t really fellows tearing off script.”
“We’re quite structured but within the structure, there’s a fair bit of flexibility to trust your instincts as well.”
O'Gara's time with the Crusaders is almost finished and he will be moving to Fance this weekend.
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