Duck, I don't really buy much of what you're saying but the one point you make that I really don't like is the "easy run" O'Gara had at 10. Munster played 10 man rugby in their prime and to play 10 man rugby you need to have a pretty good 10, think of all the times he placed kicks perfectly in the oppositions 5m line and he is probably the best 10 to put up a Garryowen.
Yes you're right, he did that, in fact I remember him embarrassing Henry Paul in the "Miracle Match" doing that, those were his strengths. However most of his points tally is thanks to the pack. What the pack got in return was being put in good positions from kicks, but that is where it stops. He also did those kicks better with Munster than with Ireland.
ROG and Stephan Jones really sea sawed between who was better throughout their career, Jones was better for the Lions but O'Gara was certainly better in club rugby and I'd say ROG was better than Jones in '03, '04, '06, '07 with Jones being better in the other four or so seasons they were both around. ROG's game management was really second to none and helped Ireland and Munster hugely in the past 14 or so years. He was voted the best HEC player of the 1st 15 years and whether that was deserved or not he was certainly the best 10.
Disagreed. In 2004, Stephen Jones was bossing about the All Blacks making breaks and hoofing them about. When has ROG done that? In fact according to
New Zealand Rugby World he isn't too much rated down there based on what he showed them. (
http://www.nzrugbyworld.co.nz/magazine/135/nightmare-elm-street)
It will come as little surprise to New Zealanders to see the name Ronan O'Gara featuring on this list. Any of his appearances against the All Blacks could feature – the man just doesn't cope against the best team in the world. Or maybe that should be the best teams in the world.
As for 2007, that wasn't Jones' best year at international, but he outplayed ROG in the Heineken Cup match with a worse team, whilst ROG completely fell to pieces at the RWC. So I would score that one to Jones too. In 2003 O'Gara was behind Humphreys in the Ireland side most of the year apart from the RWC quarter final where Ireland were 37-0 when ROG went off.
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As for club rugby, that's because O'Gara had the best team of last decade to play in. He was lucky in that the team he was born into was almost perfect fit for him, there are plenty of other teams where he wouldn't have made it very far. Whilst Stephen Jones played most of his career with the Scarlets.
Anyway, Jones with the Scarlets helped them to consistent semi finals in the early 2000's, and then was one of the best players in the Top 14 in 2005 and it was with him that Clermont began to work their way up in France. When he rejoined the Scarlets in 2006 they had a brief rebirth, notably Jones outplaying O'Gara in the Heineken Cup quarter final in 2007 and also scaring the hell out of him. Nothing to do with O'Gara being better than Jones, it's not Jones' fault that the Scarlets have been poor ever since 2007 and especially more than anywhere in the pack. O'Gara got that ERC award (which was a joke) mainly because of how much Munster are associated with the Heineken Cup, doesn't mean he was the best, Sexton is a 3 time Heineken Cup winner and I would argue played a lot better rugby off his own back rather than just kicking the points others got him.
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I'll never say that ROG was the worlds best because he was limited but there were years that he played brilliant rugby almost all year around and could have been considered Europe's best.
Again, if you watch his games closely, his all round game wasn't good enough to be considered Europe's best. Wilkinson, Stephen Jones were always better, Flood and Hodgson were more complete players, as was Sexton.
As I said before, other limited fly halves such as Andy Goode or Paul Grayson for example could have excelled in that Munster era, just as much if not more as ROG did, and of course they were better defenders which isn't hard.
I watched Farrell routinely miss half a dozen kicks a match yet the Saracens persisted. Wellies was as bad a Hook v France 2011. Hook would have gone for the field goal 30m out.
Hook pulled the team into it against England in 2008 in a way that Jones couldn't. The problem Hook had was that the Ospreys and Wales were becoming forward-dominated teams. I had Kiwi mates who would always ask me why we went with Jones over Hook. Our management couldn't bother to change their gameplan, and look at what that has done. One win v Australia in what, nine? (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 x2, 2012 x4) Hook would have been better off for Toulouse or Clermont. I would certainly say he would be more reliable than Brock James and more dynamic than Beauxis.
Draggs, Wellies wasn't as bad as Hook in 2011. Hook missed 2 kicks from in front of the posts, but also his punt kicking was terrible. Wellies controlled the game better even if he did run away from the drop goal. Both Hook and Jones had their merits at times, but the point it that Hook was certainly a challenger to the jersey which Munstermuffin said he is not.
The problem for Hook is that he couldn't play a controlling game which is what the Ospreys game plan needed, and when attempting to he did so poorly such as Saracens match in 2008 where he was awful. He was still very good at centre in that game plan though. I think if Wales varied up the attack with Hook at centre we would have a better chance than the current one dimensional attack. Hook shouldn't have joined Perpignan, he's just forgotten there, and by watching his match at Stade Francais he still chokes as well. He suits more of a Super Rugby style of game than Top 14 in my opinion.
