Declan Kidney, the Ireland coach, was full of praise for Ronan O'Gara, despite the fly-half's error-prone kicking display during his side's 14-13 Six Nations defeat of England yesterday.
Ireland tightened their grip on the Six Nations and edged closer to a first Grand Slam since 1948 after their hard-fought triumph at Croke Park. But though the victory was marred by a flawed display of place-kicking from O'Gara, who finished with just six points after failing with four shots at goal, Kidney had nothing but praise for the back.
"I've got an awful lot to say for Ronan," said Kidney. "He missed those penalties but never retreated into his shell. When we needed that last penalty he never shirked it. We needed him and he stepped up. That says much to me.
"How much courage did it take to stand up and hit that last one? It's when things are not going your way that you have to show the courage to keep playing. Brian [O'Driscoll] had one of his better days but Ronan dug in and was the deciding factor."
Kidney did his best to draw the spotlight away from captain O'Driscoll, who landed a drop goal and burrowed over for Ireland's 61st-minute try. The Leinster centre gave another lesson in the art of defending and while Paul O'Connell may appear a more natural leader on the pitch, O'Driscoll's brilliance remains indispensable.
With a Lions tour looming his revival in this year's Six Nations is well timed, yet Kidney's assessment of the 30-year-old's form was measured. "I'm delighted for Brian," he said. "He works hard. Sometimes you look at him when he goes down injured and say 'for God's sake, get up Brian!'
"I know what he went through to get himself out on the pitch as he had bit of a hamstring strain during the week. He's gone about his business greatly. He can defend that outside centre channel very well.
"Every team's defence has become so good that there's less and less space for outside centres. It's a tactical thing. Brian is a big player for us and our captain but is playing well in a team that is going well. It can be manic with Brian. One day people say he's way off and the next day say he's not. But rugby is a team game."
Remaining true to form, Kidney furiously distanced Ireland from any talk of the grand slam despite moving within two wins of the clean sweep. Certainly this was their least convincing performance, though the scoreboard failed to reflect their superiority against a muscular England side containing more brawn than brain.
Ireland now travel to Scotland for their penultimate match as favourites to win the Six Nations title, but Kidney still believes his side are punching above their weight. "The view we'd beat England heavily never came from us," said the former Munster coach. "There's never a bad England team, especially when their backs are against the wall like they were when they played us. They were extremely difficult to break down and we had to put our all into it.
"We're an okay team. We have four professional teams, England have 12 and they have a semi-professional league below that. We came away with a one-point win in a venue that is very important to us. It was important to win both games against them here.
"There's a lot of experience in our team. They've been down different roads in the past but we know there's no-one like Scotland to disturb a party."
