Aiming To Get It Right.

On Saturday, Ronan O’Gara is set to win his 50th Heineken Cup cap and he is just five points off equalling Diego Dominguez record of 645 tournament points.

Ronan O Gara came under the spotlight at the press conference in UL yesterday when he was quizzed about Heineken Cup memories and the records he is likely to break in the immediate future.

For those who are not aware the 27 year old is set to win his 50th Heineken Cup cap on Saturday and he is just five points off equalling Diego Dominguez record of 645 tournament points. But O Gara was reluctant to exult in what most would consider fairly momentous achievement.

Winning fifty caps I suppose is a fair milestone but it s one that in this day and age is hardly too remarkable. Axel, John Kelly and John Hayes have all passed that mark and Strings is not far behind, on 49 this weekend I think.

“But besides that I believe records are for looking back on when you retire. I tend to look forward to the game ahead and not get distracted by things like that. What record I broke or no matter what I scored up to now, will mean nothing when the game kicks off on Saturday. It s what I do on the day will count, nothing else.

“So there s no point in glorying in records, what is great is to have been involved for so long and with a team like this, playing in front of the best supporters in the game. I mean loads of players aren t that lucky so in that regard yes it s great to be in a position of heading into my 50th game”.

And as he reaches this milestone what does he believe Munster have to do to do what they failed to do last week ?

Simple enough , we have to up our performance throughout the side. I think everyone knows that and I think we can. It s not going to be enough that we are at home in front of our Thomond Park supporters. That s a huge thing for us. But if we think that will be enough we re mistaken. And when you think of the sort of places Castres play in, in France, they won t be intimidated.

“I m not going to identify areas or talk of game-plans and stuff like that. That’s for us to work out. Each of us know there is room for improvement. Each of us knows we have to cut out, well maybe cut down on the errors we made last week .

And the objective for Munster , the target they must set for themselves on Saturday ?

Look there is no point in codding ourselves. We have to win. You have to win your home games. How we win makes no difference. People talk about bonus points and all that. But the target we must set for ourselves is to go out and play the sort of game we know we are capable of playing. If we can do that it will make up an awful lot for last Friday. So that s the target – to make up for last week.