74 mins 18 secs Philips... gets away from O'Connell... gets away from Stringer... and he's almost there!... the Millennium Stadium on its feet... Ireland somehow survive... Bennett... Stephen Jones... Mark Jones... Ireland up to tackle... sheer will keeps Wales at bay... Philips... drop at goal... Stephen Jones... this for the lead... he's got it!

Ryle Nugent's RTé commentary last Saturday

Wednesday afternoon and Ronan O'Gara will soon be on bottle-feeding duty. Rory and Molly are three weeks short of their sixth month and their mother is having a long overdue couple of hours off around five o'clock. Their father sits down and orders a chicken and spring onion wrap ("Only the tiniest bit of crème fraîche if that's alright...") and goes trawling for the words to put on it all.

They aren't coming to him especially easy just yet. Everyone he's met since Saturday has asked him how it feels and he's smiled and said it's great and incredible and amazing and all that jazz. And that's all true, every word. But really, he's only now getting a proper sense of it and even at that what he's really looking forward to is the gradual seeping in that will happen over the coming week. He knows that it'll catch him unguarded one of the days and when it does it'll be just for himself. That'll be a nice moment. Finally.

The last time he sat down with the Sunday Tribune back in October, he admitted that he had a genuine fear that he might finish his career unfulfilled. Two Heineken Cups aren't nothing, not by any stretch, but if they ended up being all that appeared in the second line of his obituary, then he wouldn't have made the most of his time in the game. Harsh, you thought. Fair, he insisted. And now? Does this put that to rest?

"Yeah, I think so," he says. "It does, yeah. But that's just for today. The next time we meet up as Ireland players, that will be forgotten. But at the minute, yeah, that fear is gone. It was hugely important for some of us who've been there for so long to finally win it and have something to show for it."

Of course it came down to him in the end; it nearly always does. Has done since he was the red-cheeked, neat-haired hat-stand playing outhalf for the Cork Con under-12s two decades ago. He wouldn't have lasted this long if he didn't enjoy that part of it, wouldn't be who he is if he didn't like the look of a last-minute kick to win it all. That's why he was bawling at Peter Stringer for a full minute before he got the pass. He wanted it before he had too much time to think about it. He'd picked his spot, had visualised the kick and didn't care that he was standing well outside the 22.

"With the adrenaline pumping, whatever I kicked wasn't going to be short anyway," he grins.

75:23 It's a one-point game and there are four and a half minutes for Ireland to find their way... and it's gone out on the full... it was brought back into the Welsh 22 so Ireland with the put-in to the line-out... and you look to O'Gara and you look to the drop goal... and you wonder how much pressure can one player take...?

Pressure, Ryle? Wrong day for that. He didn't feel pressure, he just wanted the ball so he could win the game. You want pressure, you need to rewind the tape by three weeks. That last kick against England in Croke Park, that was pressure. In Cardiff, he knew exactly what was what. He knew what he needed the forwards to do, he knew where he needed to be standing, he knew where the Welsh defenders were and what kind of shot would be needed to get it over them as they rushed out. But against England, there were times when he knew nothing.

You want pressure, try to imagine that. Try to get your head around not being able to complete the one task you do more often and more efficiently than any other. Meanwhile, everyone's depending on you. The whole country's watching. And it's England. He was doing everything he normally does when lining up a kick. His routine was the same, his concentration was the same, his action was the same. But the kicks wouldn't go between the posts.

"With goalkicking, some days you turn up and perform and it's so easy and other days you can do the exact same thing and you're left wondering why the ball is going where it's going. It rarely happens but it happened that day and there was no denying it. And the consequences of a bad goalkicking day are huge if the team loses. It's all about the win. If I miss the kicks and the team loses by a point, then it's all down to me. Especially after winning the first two games, the thoughts of putting the team in that situation were awful."

His last kick won the day though, put eight points between the sides in a game where England still had a converted try in them. That was something to hold on to. He stood up in the dressing room afterwards and apologised but was told to sit down by a roomful of people who all knew they owed his right boot much more than it owed them. That helped as well, even if as Paul O'Connell says, "It would have meant more to Rog to say it than it would have for us to hear it."

Early the following week, he rang Tony McGahan. He knew he'd be fine, knew it was just one of those days, didn't really doubt that he'd be back in the groove for the Scotland game. But he needed to hear all that from somebody else. Somebody he respected, somebody from beyond the team room. The Munster coach told him that he'd watched the video, that overall he didn't think O'Gara had played so badly and that the kicking would right itself. The right words from the right man.

"You've got to do it. There's no point talking about coming through it, you've got to do it. You need the game though. That was the worst thing about it – we had two weeks until the Scotland game. If I'm honest, I was a small bit edgy going into that. I really could have done with it being the following Saturday."

There have been a few sports psychologists involved with the squads he's been part of over the past decade but if he's honest, he can't see what good they'd do for him when it comes to taking those kicks. No doubt about it, they're a mental task more than a physical one, but he'd rather fight his own battle, thanks all the same. He's no Neanderthal and can see how they might work for someone else but when it comes down to it, he's his own shrink and prefers it that way.

"My belief is that there are very few people in my situation who've done what I've done. Not being cocky about it but you know what I mean? All these sports psychologists can give you advice on the mental aspects of the game but when it comes down to it, there are very few sportspeople playing the game who've been in my position, who've scored over 1,000 points in Europe and nearly the same for Ireland. I'm the person under the pressure. Every time I take to a rugby pitch, my game is scrutinised above all others.

"The longer you're around, the more caps you have, the more the standards you've set for yourself have to be lived up to. I enjoy the scrutiny because, as I've said before, they don't scrutinise average players, do they? But in terms of kicking and learning and this type of stuff, I think I'm on my own level and I'm my best teacher. This is just on the kicking side of it that I'm talking about now – obviously the other aspects of my game benefit from outside help. But at this stage, the kicking comes down to me. Eventually, it all comes down to me alone."

76:18 Rory Best... holds onto the back of those in front... discipline, patience... the key aspects now... and Paul O'Connell, no better man to lead with that example... O'Callaghan back in to help... Stringer looks to set it up, O'Gara has now dropped back into the pocket...

If it all ends with O'Gara, nobody's been in any doubt all year as to where it began. That squad meeting in Enfield in the run-up to Christmas was Declan Kidney's masterstroke. The 45 minutes of on-pitch training over three days. Pádraig Harrington's address. Kidney's repeated reminders that this was their team, for them to own and cherish and grow. Somewhere along the way, amid the tension and paranoia of the last days of the Eddie O'Sullivan's empire, that had been lost.

A cleansing of sorts was needed and that necessarily meant things got heated at times. One of the days, they split up into groups of six or seven and were given blank sheets of paper on which to write anything that was on their mind. O'Gara left his blank. He wanted to let the younger squad members feel as entitled to their say as he was to his. So when Rob Kearney asked aloud if there was an issue with Munster players feeling more attached to their red jerseys that their green ones, O'Gara knew they were getting somewhere.

"I think that surprised a lot of people but it was actually perfect the way it worked out. I'd have huge time for him and I think he has an unbelievable future ahead of him. I admire that because he said it straight out. The key point about it is that he was saying it with a bit of admiration in his voice. He was saying that the Munster lads seem to play with a bit of an x-factor and it was said in positive terms. It wasn't begrudging.

"But still, for a Leinster fella to say that to a group of Munster players is a big thing, there's no point saying otherwise. And I don't think that would have happened under any other regime. But Deccie has this way of breaking down barriers and making people connect. That set the tone basically and one or two Munster fellas got offended but Rob explained himself and ever since then, fellas knew that this team was connecting."

Other issues were fed into the blender and reduced to crumbs. Any residual ill-feeling from Kidney's hasty departure from the Leinster set-up in 2005 was brought up, smoothed out and left behind. A few players had been bugged by the fact that O'Connell had done a post-match, on-pitch interview for Australian TV when it was O'Driscoll who was the captain and that was ironed out as well. By the time they broke for Christmas, O'Gara reckons they were starting to get notion of what was needed.

"Belief was a huge part of it. If one fella didn't believe last weekend that we were going to do it then I don't think it could have happened. But it was fed into everybody from that meeting before Christmas until March that you had to get your head around the idea that this team was going places. It couldn't happen overnight.

"But that's what Deccie does. He makes you believe and he brings you together. When he was with Munster, Deccie was in charge of around 70 people and the key to it was that it was very, very rare that you would have people bitching. Especially with all the disappointments we had down the years, you would have thought that fellas would be having a go at each other even just out of frustration, even at the staff of the coaches or whatever. But that's what he's good at. He makes you your own biggest critic. I've known him since I was a kid and I'd be strong against him and he'd be strong against me but it's all for the team."

76:48 Clock ticks to three minutes... Ireland continue to pick and go... It doesn't get more intense than this moment... Peter Stringer urging his pack, Marcus Horan in particular to get up and defend... they've almost nothing left to give...

Funny, even in these media-savvy days where everyone has an agenda and everyone knows about it, they were still genuinely annoyed at Warren Gatland in the build-up. O'Gara was given his debut by the Kiwi in another life, as were half a dozen of the others and they've had enough contact with him through the years to know what he's about. And still he got under their skin and pissed them off. It wasn't that he was trying to stir up trouble, it was that he was inventing animosity that O'Gara swears simply doesn't exist.

"It was essentially lies," he says. "I made my debut with Simon Easterby under Warren so I know him well and I'd have kept in good contact with Simon through the years so I know plenty of the Welsh players too and there's just nothing in what he said. You know, say what you like Warren but don't be making up stuff. There's nothing to it, honestly. I'd say so if there was. He'd want to find another angle on that if he's going to be saying things. At least be accurate in what you're saying. That's all people ask for."

And will it be awkward to deal with when ye meet up with the Lions?

"I wouldn't have a clue. I don't think it's an issue. We've spoken about it, it's done, move on. The men I know don't hold grudges. If we've a problem with a fella, we'll say it to his face. We'll get it sorted and we'll get on with what we're going there to do. I don't have a problem with him at all. I talked to him that night – he came over to congratulate me and I said, 'Thanks Warren' and that was it."

The summer is a while away yet and he's back in Munster mode for now but the Lions are there in the back of his mind. He's been on two tours without enjoying either of them, not 2001 which everyone remembers for him getting the head punched off him by Duncan McRae in a midweek game and certainly not 2005 which he went to thinking he had a shot at a test place only to come home convinced the team had been picked before they'd left London. This time should be different.

"Obviously it was an honour to go on two tours but the reason I'd be going on this one is to win a test series. In terms of your perfect season, I have three more things to achieve. I want to win a Magners League, a Heineken Cup and a Lions test series. That's the perfect scenario obviously and I know well enough that perfect doesn't always happen. But you have to have these goals and you have to go after them.

"I've played a lot of big games in the past three years and that stands to you. It has to. I don't think there's many out-halves who had that kind of exposure over that time. I respect the other lads but if I didn't fancy myself to get into the team, there'd be something wrong."

77:26 Ireland in position... this must be it... this must be it for Ronan O'Gara... drop at goal!... Grand Slam at stake!... HE'S GOT IT!... Would. You. Believe. That.

The kick was high enough to clear the onrushers, true enough to knife through the post and long enough to land in the Taff if it had to. He raced back with his hands aloft even as it was still in the air and took a quick look up at the scoreboard to see how long was to go. Just over two minutes. Enough for us all to be left in crumpled heaps at the sight of Stephen Jones's penalty soaring, sailing and falling just short. O'Gara too, by the by.

"Ah, it was great though. I don't think I expected the inner glow of it as much. I only really realised how much it meant to me when I was talking to a couple of the young fellas about it. You can wonder what it's going to be like and you can think ahead but you don't know until you do it. And the feeling of satisfaction at what we'd achieved, the depth of it, that was a nice surprise actually. I took huge satisfaction from it, much more than I thought I would.

"You're doing it for people and you're making people happy – I think that's the key to it. I'd always be very conscious of supporters and fellow players and staff and to be able to make them happy just through playing a game. The reaction in the stadium during and after the game, it all felt like a bit of a blur but you were surrounded by happiness."

That you were, Ronan. That you were.

mclerkin@tribune.ie

Curriculum Vitae

Ronan O'Gara

Age 32

Honours Grand Slam 2009; Triple Crown 2004, 2006, 2007; Heineken Cup 2006, 2008;

92 Ireland caps, 919 points

All -time leading scorer in Six Nations and Heineken Cup
RTÉ Sports Personality of the Year 2004

Did you know? The first time O'Gara ever won a game with a last-minute drop-goal was the Munster Junior Schools Cup final of 1992. Presentation Brothers Cork beat St Munchin's 3-0 thanks to his injury-time winner. And his coach that day? A maths teacher by the name of Declan Kidney