Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

You are right, he didn't play, he was just a hindrance in the first half.

except that just isnt true, again using the example of the erc awards - there was only one irish judge on that panel so by definition he was rated highly outside of ireland

ERC is a club award rather than test award. I thought this discussion was about ROG's test career rather than his club career. On the test career he was incredible for Ireland but never managed a Lions test start. He captained the mid week team and scored two test caps off the bench, the second an ignominious disaster. Over 3 tours he was never the starting OH which puts some context on his standing against Stephen Jones, James Hook, Neil Jenkins and Wilkinson, the other touring OHs. He was rated highly absolutely, but he was never regarded as a test superstar outside Ireland.

fair enough to say the ERC awards were for club performances but discounting them is also a bit unfair. as much as i get the point about lions caps, its also a bit of an unfair metric to judge by itself - for example sexton was still probably the best 10 available in 2021 but he didnt tour. the 2005 tour was a joke all round for example and it was generally accepted that hodgson was the best 10 on the tour followed by o gara, so naturally SCW didnt pick either of them. in 2009 i think tomas o leary getting ruled out of the tour hindered him a bit, having mike phillips at 9 and roberts at 12 meant it made sense to start jones, they were pretty neck and neck up until the first test and o gara probably should have started but the welsh players outside probably swung it for jones. everyone remembers how well SJ played in the second test (which he absolutley did) but he was very poor in the first and was probably lucky to keep his place

he was also named as the second best 10 in the world (behind carter) in 2006 and 2007, cant remember them doing those rundowns after that but all of their panelists had him at 10 in their 'if the lions was this year' after the 6N in 2007. where he was joint top try scorer

absolute revisionist history

so charlie hodgson, andy goode, olly barkley and toby flood were all better than o gara? James Hook, Ceri Sweeney, Iestyn Harris? Michalak? Francois Trihn Duc? Yann Delaigue, Benjamin Boyet, David Skrela, Lionel Beauxis, Francois Gelez, Gerald Merceron, Damien Traille? jaco van der westhuizen, Andre Pretorious? Butch James? Berrick Barnes, Mat Rogers? Frederico Todeschini? They were all better than O Gara?

Realistically the only 10 that was consistently better than O Gara for the main part of his career when he was at his best (say 2004-2010) was Dan Carter. At other times it could be argued that Matt Giteau, Larkham (past his best at this stage but still very good), Stephen Jones and Wilkinson (2007 RWC) were better than him (with some bit of consistency, not just in a one-off). Other than that, not many other options. Hodgson was very good in 2006 before his injuries but never got back to his best, France basically changed their 10s from week to week and none were that good - Michalak was probably their best but he was wildly inconsistent, Hernandez had a great RWC 2007 but wasnt that great at 10 after that, Felipe Contepomi mainly played 12 for Argentina at the time and apparently club performances dont count so he cant be better than O Gara. Butch James won a RWC but wasnt exactly an essential part of the team, NZ had a few 10s other than Carter that looked good at times but faded away, its hard to judge them seeing as he was locked in as NZ (and world) number 1, nick evans was great for harlequins for so long but again club games dont matter apparently. Luke McCallister looked like he could have been good but he fell away pretty quickly

edit: forgot to add, sexton had some good performances in the timeframe mentioned but he was a bit too inconsistent at times and he really came into his own after o gara retired

O'Gara played in a different era, the level of physicality and also also level of analysis now means it is hard to hide someone who is terrible defender and make no mistake Prendergast is a terrible defender right now. Anyone who argues differently is not watching the game in any detail. He is also a beautiful kicker of the ball from hand and the 50:22 rule and ban on escorting means the Irish coaches are willing to overlook the flaws in his game. Will he come unstuck against France?, we are certainly going to get a chance to find out.

this is a very sensible take

Over the course of his career ROG would have got plenty of caps from the 6 nations teams, even France. Would he have been consistently #1 as he was in Ireland, probably not, but he wold have had plenty bench caps and starts over the years.

england, scotland, france probably, wales possibly although jones was generally very good, italy, australia depending on where they would play giteau, south africa, argentina potentially

pretty much every team apart from NZ and wales, maybe not england if wilkinson was fit (even though im not a massive fan of his) and if hodgson had more luck he potentially could have been up there. wales would be a coin toss most of the time too. but yeah pretty much every team bar 2

Boyle back training with Leinster

He would've started for England in the period between Wilko and Farrell. He'd never start for Wales. France had better OHs, just batshit coaches. Michalak and Trinh Duc were both better imo, certainly in the context of French style. He wouldn't start for any of the SH teams. SA had Steyn, who was basically a ROG who could tackle. Aus had Larkham, Giteau, Cooper etc. He's not starting over them. Every OH NZ had as a starter for the last 20 yrs would be ahead of him, bar Donald. Likewise Argentina.