Chicken, a few spuds, a bit of mixed-veg, nothing too complicated on the pallet. The French camera crew hovers with intent but the front-man comes over and tells the out-half they'll wait until he's finished.

"Thanks, " he says with a grin.

Awful big of them. And when he finishes they advance towards him in a way that only continental European camera crews can.

Sky Sports and RTE are outside with the baby blue Limerick sky as backdrop; the French position him at table in the dark media room and make it seem as though they're filming a low budget porn movie in as quick a time as possible. Oh the French, they're a terrible lot altogether.

Once they've got their pound of flesh, they love him and leave him and the rest of us crowd around in a very Irish manner, with elbows to the fore and every man fighting for his own little bit of turf. But luckily for us O'Gara appears in good form, despite the fact that his stomach has hardly had the opportunity to separate the potatoes from the vegetables. And when you think about it for a few seconds, it's easy to see why he has a bit of a pep in his voice. He's already won a Triple Crown with Ireland this year, he's on the cusp of his third Heineken Cup final appearance with Munster, bringing the Holy Grail that little bit nearer, and perhaps more importantly than all of that, his form on the pitch is as good as it has ever been.

For the first season since he emerged on the scene with Cork Constitution back in 1996, his critics now seem to be convinced of his true worth.

Once labelled a kicking out-half who liked nothing better than retreating into the pocket, O'Gara has managed to peel away that particular tag and reveal himself as player more than capable of operating smack bang in the middle of all the midfield traffic.

The apex of his year to date was his performance in the semi-final against Leinster. The out-half spoke vividly afterwards about how he didn't enjoy the intense build-up to the game one bit but if pressure causes different reactions in different people, O'Gara appears to be an individual who thrives on it. He was flawless that sunny afternoon, from the touch finder he teased, with almost no backlift, over the head of Shane Horgan in the first-half, to the late try he scored having pawed Malcolm O'Kelly out of the way inside the Leinster 22. Paul O'Connell claimed the man-of-the-match award, deservedly so it must be said, but O'Gara was the one who pulled the strings behind the performance. As we said, flawless.

He's never been the kind of guy to lack that bit of confidence in himself and his abilities and there's no surprise when he informs you that he was fully aware of the quality of his own performance in the semi-final. "I seemed to have one of my better games, " he says. "I don't know what it was, I was really tuned in. That kind of shows what I can do, but there's more in the tank hopefully. It [a performance like that] gives you huge confidence to draw from. At the same time you have to realise that you can't play like that every game and while I've been fairly consistent this season, I stepped up a level for that game and I'll have to replicate that again for the final."

Simple as that, you might say, but one certain thing is that O'Gara's performance on Saturday will go a long way to deciding whether Munster finally bring home the object of their desires. His line-kicking, in particular, behind the likes of Sereli Bobo and Jean-Baptiste Gobelet, will need to be dropped on the proverbial six pence, and his goal kicking is also going to be a crucial factor. It's may not be something he wants to be reminded of but O'Gara missed four kicks out of four in his first Heineken Cup final against Northampton (admittedly in extremely blustery conditions). But, as he realises himself, he's come a long way since then.

"Six years ago I was more nervous than I am now but that's what experience teaches you, " he says as a worldly 29-year-old. "You learn from occasions like that and you hope to improve with every passing year. I don't recall too much about them [the finals] to be honest, just the huge disappointment afterwards when we didn't win. Playing big games for Ireland is no different to this game although the prize of this game is particularly huge. But you can't get distracted by that, you have to go about your normal routine and trust what you do."

He didn't get the opportunity to go through that against Biarritz in the quarter-final last year. He picked up a ligament injury to his right knee against the Dragons just a week before the game and was forced to watch proceedings back on his couch in Cork. Worrying about his teammates, he also had his own fears.

"I was sitting in my front room, icing my leg, " recalls. "I didn't travel.

I was going through all sort of emotions. I had a small tear in my cruciate ligament, I thought I'd have to have an operation and my head was wrecked to say the least. It was advised that I shouldn't travel, to get things right for the semi-final if we got there."

There was no chance to get things right thanks to another display of minimalistic rugby from the Basques, but not being there hasn't stopped him from understanding the force that Munster are going to meet at the weekend. "They're a strong team and anybody who knows their rugby will appreciate that. There are a lot of people getting distracted about the fact that we've been to two finals before and this has to be our year, but we could be there five or six times and we mightn't win it. That's not being negative or anything, but not everybody appreciates how good they are and I don't think they've reached their full potential yet. They seem to be tipping along.

They haven't demolished any team but no team looked like beating them. So we have our work cut out but we just have to believe we can do it and I think the fellas in our squad come kick-off time will be in that frame of mind."

He knows the first half an hour is going to be absolutely crucial. "We're going to need more of the same this time, " he says. "They've completely dominated the opening 30 minutes of every game, taking their three, six, nine points and once they get ahead nobody can seem to pull them back. It's important we don't give them the lead."

He's asked what memories he has of playing at the Millennium Stadium and in double-quick time he has the answer. "A drop-goal there against Wales, " he smiles. "That's a decent memory." And strangely enough, you might think, he'd prefer the roof to be open on Saturday, not shut. "If they close the roof there'll be dew on the surface and on the ball, which can be quite difficult to deal with. There'll be different wind tunnels and stuff if the roof is open but it won't be like Lansdowne Road on a windy day. It won't be too difficult to deal with."

And as he allows one positive memory from Cardiff . . . that drop-goal against Wales in the last minute of the game back in 2003 that kept Ireland's Grand Slam dreams alive . . . has he allowed himself a glimpse towards 5pm on Saturday and the potential aftermath of a Munster victory?

"I don't think like that to be honest, " he says with a furrow in his brow. "I'm probably a small bit pessimistic in the way I view things. I don't look upon it like that. Everything is going into preparation and if you start thinking about after the game, you can lose your focus."

And Munster need him to keep his.