Sunday, April 27, 2003 and Leinster are hosting Perpignan in the semi-final of the European Cup in Lansdowne Road.
About 250 kilometres away, in what was then the East Village bar in the well-heeled Cork city suburb of Douglas, a group of Cork-based Munster players gather to watch the Leinster game on the big screen.
The day before, Munster had lost their semi-final away to Toulouse 13-12, with a late try by Freddie Michalak and touchline conversion from Jean-Baptiste Elissalde adding the latest chapter to their European odyssey agony.
A dejected Ronan O’Gara following the loss to Toulouse in the 2003 European Cup semi-final
This was at the height of the province’s ‘holy grail’ quest, a time they had lost two finals and two semi-finals over four seasons when it seemed like they were always landed with the hardest route imaginable.
That season, they battled their way out of a pool containing heavyweight opposition in Gloucester and Perpignan and then won away to Martin Johnson’s Leicester side, packed with players who would win World Cup medals a few months later to earn the right to travel to Toulouse.
Meanwhile, Leinster had cruised unbeaten through a pool containing relative lightweights Bristol, Montferrand and Swansea to reach a knockout section where they had a home run at Lansdowne all the way to the final.
Gordon D’Arcy in action during Leinster’s 2003 European knockout win over Biarritz in Dublin
It was all set up for Matt Williams and his squad of ‘Galacticos’ and having seen off Biarritz in the quarters, Leinster were confidently predicted to blow Perpignan away in the semis to set up a Dublin final date with Toulouse.
Nobody told Perpignan. The doughty French side refused to stick to the script and Leinster imploded, crashing 14-21 to Perpignan after a limp performance.
On the back of Munster’s loss the day before, this was not a good weekend for Irish rugby but you would not have known it in Cork that Sunday as celebrations swept the city when Leinster’s plight became clear.
Not least in the East Village, where stories of whooping and hollering Munster players roaring on Perpignan quickly spread around.
It did not matter that many of that Leinster side were colleagues and friends of the Munster lads at national level and that a rising tide lifts all boats – the very notion of the D4 brigade tasting European glory before Munster did was too much to bear.
It was not as much a Munster-Leinster thing, as it was a Cork-Dublin thing.
The party went late into the night.
It is hard for people outside Cork to understand the depth of the antipathy and resentment that exists towards Dublin.
Ronan O’Gara and Johnny Sexton were in an intense battle for the Ireland No10 jersey in 2011
If you do not criticise every aspect of Ireland’s capital city – from the price of the pint to the horrendous traffic – you are not considered to be a true Rebel and those of us who had the temerity to actually move and settle in Dublin have to bemoan that fact on every home visit, or we would not make it past the Jack Lynch tunnel.
This is why we have the ‘People’s Republic’ and ‘Real Capital’ narratives and the fact that the capital seems largely oblivious to Cork’s obsessive desire to do Dublin down adds to the levels of vitriol.
This applies to rugby as much as it does to anything.
Walk into an established Cork rugby hostelry like Barry’s of Douglas, the Leaping Salmon in Blackrock or The Rob Roy off the main drag in the city centre and you will quickly be aware how much the game is viewed through an anti-Dublin/anti-Leinster prism.
This was particularly the case when Johnny Sexton was Ireland’s out-half – no matter what the former World Player of the Year achieved, you would not need to travel too far in Cork to hear him being put down.
For Ronan O’Gara, it was, and is, the exact opposite.
Ronan O’Gara scores for Munster during their European semi-final win over Leinster in 2006
‘ROG’ is one of Cork’s sport’s untouchables, up on the Rebel Mount Rushmore with Roy Keane, Sonia O’Sullivan, Jimmy Barry-Murphy and Christy Ring, and he can do no wrong…. unless he were to take over as head coach of Leinster.
This is precisely why it would never work.
All the talk about O’Gara succeeding Leo Cullen as Leinster supremo feels like the biggest red herring in rugby since England tried to convince us (and themselves) that Sam Burgess was the next big thing.
IRFU elite performance director David Humphreys gave a lengthy interview to the travelling Irish rugby media in Australia last week in which he said a whole lot without saying very much at all.
Humphreys’ line that O’Gara was a candidate for the Leinster job was seized upon as proof that the Corkman was being pushed by the IRFU to succeed Cullen but when you properly examine what was said, it is nowhere near.
Ronan O’Gara chats with Leo Cullen before La Rochelle’s clash with Leinster in 2022
Rather than declaring that O’Gara has expressed interest in the position, Humphreys merely said he ‘assumed’ that La Rochelle’s current head would be a candidate.
That is a long way from ‘ROG in line for Leinster job’.
While always wary of putting yourself inside someone’s head, there is no way we could see O’Gara ever taking this job – the culture barriers built up over his near 50 years are far too high.
O’Gara has worked closely with and was very good friends with many Dublin 4-Leinster players over the years – notably Brian O’Driscoll – but representing that culture as head coach is another thing entirely.
It is not that the Dublin-Leinster culture is better or worse than the Cork culture – they are just too at odds.
Declan Kidney’s time as Leinster head coach appeared uncomfortable for everyone involved
Declan Kidney came from exactly the same background as O’Gara. Bishopstown, ‘Pres’, UCC, Munster and when he took on the role of Leinster coach in 2004, it very quickly became apparent that things were not going to click properly – on either side.
The first thing that jarred was the fact Leinster were known as ‘The Leinster Lions’ at the time – the ’Lions’ tag was quickly dropped – but while Kidney was able to do great things with the same players when he took over Ireland, with Leinster he was just the wrong fit.
And it is the same with O’Gara. No matter how much sense it may make on paper, particularly with the timing factor, O’Gara and Leinster is just the wrong fit and the Cork factor means it is a step he could never take.
His excellent newspaper column is an example of this.
When O’Gara retired in 2013, getting the legendary out-half as a columnist was a no-brainer and everyone went after him, including the Dublin nationals.
One of those Dublin papers offered O’Gara eye-watering money to work for them but he preferred to write his column for the Examiner in Cork.
Best known as ‘De Paper’ from its Cork Examiner days, it is a local identity badge on Leeside, up there with Barry’s Tea, drisheen and Tanora.
If O’Gara had shown up in one of the Dublin papers, he would never have heard the end of it.
Ronan O’Gara would never hear the end of it in Cork if he took over as Leinster head coach
Donal Lenihan and Donal Og Cusack made exactly the same decision when they were in equally high demand.
O’Gara may be away from Leeside for more than a decade now, but his Cork roots run deep and they matter a great deal to him. He knows all too well the repercussions if he took on the Leinster job.
Some things in Cork are non negotiable no matter how good the incentives.
This is one of them.
