Owen Slot ponders the reaction to Ronan O'Gara's costly mistakes for the Lions in the second Test against the Springboks in The Times.
"Ronan O’Gara versus Phil Neville. Who would you rather be? Or rather, how do like to have your sporting villains hung, drawn and quartered? Do you want their entrails splattered across the backpages? Because when you are an international athlete and skill and judgement desert you, at the very time when you need them most, you are of course letting down a “nation”. And it’s one thing to let down a nation, but O’Gara let down four (and we could easily make that five, but let’s not go there).
"You know where we are. O’Gara: the Saturday before last, making the error(s) that run-of-play suggests cost the Lions a Test match. Or at least a Test draw. And Phil Neville: 20th June 2000, misjudging a tackle on Viorel Moldovan and conceding the penalty that effectively knocked England out of the European Championships.
"The accepted way is that the media assassination of football’s villains is infinitely more withering than those in rugby. Or indeed in any other sport. And it is indeed the case that while anyone who watched the second Lions Test in Loftus Versfeld appreciates the heavy cost of O’Gara’s error of judgement, he has escaped from the print media largely unscathed. There is barely a headline that bears his name. No hysteria. No crucifixion. No one called for him to return his tour fee. And no sign of a vegetable onto which his face has been photo-shopped. Nothing."
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