ROG waded into the rivers of nostalgia on OTB AM with some stories of both bravery and injury - as he recalled the good old days early in his career.
Ronan O'Gara joined Ger and Eoin and recalled one particular tale of getting chased out the gate at a match!
"There's the infamous story of getting chased out of Tom Clifford Park by Young Munster, I ran away from Dessie Clohessy after I stamped on the other prop's head in a game - I don't know what happened.
"It's very famous in Munster Rugby circles! I got chased around the pitch by Des Clohessy and all the Young Munster [fans], 10,000 people there, going 'Open the gate, O'Gara's coming!'
"There was no way I was standing up to him, he was going to box the head off me! I said to Dessie because I became very friendly with him in Munster camps and still to this day over the years - 'Did you think I was going to stand there and go toe-to-toe with you? No, I was going to use my evasive skills and try and get away from you!'"
ROG also spoke about his old Munster teammate Rua Tipoki - and how he had to earn his respect the hard way. Ronan even named his son Rua after picking uo a fondness for the name.
"I liked the name, but I liked the man behind it too and what he stood for. I really respected him and liked him, and he made the game very easy for me.
"In terms of playing the game, at that stage I had Dougie Howlett on my right wing and my 12 which was Tipoki on my left-hand side. I was able to see things, but when you have three guys seeing the same things and being able to communicate on the run, it was just so enjoyable to play.
"I remember one of the early games at the Ricoh Arena when we played Wasps. We just really hit it off as a combination. If Rua said 'jump' Lifimi [Mafi] would say 'how high?'
"I can remember we went to Clermont and got a losing bonus-point out of it that maybe set us up for that campaign.
28 September 2008; Rua Tipoki, Munster, is tackled by Felipe Contepomi, Leinster. Magners League, Leinster v Munster, RDS, Dublin. Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE"I got split and I actually ended up getting 28 stitches in my right ear after the game. It was a complete accident - one of the flankers jumped over the ruck and landed on my ear and my ear just kind of exploded and it was flopping down.
"I obviously had to go and Rua [Tipoki] presumed that's me done for the day. He just broke out laughing then and said 'What are you coming back on for?' and it was normal.
"At that stage with adrenaline and stuff you just kind of [do] whatever it takes - I don't know would it be passed medically nowadays. There were different rules at that time and you'd come on with a head bandage.
"He probably associated me with a little bit of a pretty boy and not that tough, but I think that's when our relationship really crystallised and I ended up getting a penalty late in the game.
"Moments like that that people never hear about are very, very important. I was down in New Zealand for two seasons and I met him regularly and it's like I've never been apart from him, which is testament to our relationship."
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