It’s between us and England, says O’Gara as Wales suffer fresh blow
RONAN O’GARA believes this year’s Six Nations is a two-horse race between Ireland and England.
Dismissing France as a “mess”, the legendary former out-half has stated his belief that the tournament will boil down to the battle between the two teams who have won the last four instalments of the Championship between them.
Ireland won’t face England until their final-day clash at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day and, if O’Gara is correct, it will be a high-stakes affair.
“For me, it’s between Ireland and England. England are a serious side, we all like to find faults in them but sometimes you have to say fair play to them,” O’Gara said.
“The great thing about Ireland is that they’re consistently performing under Joe Schmidt.
“He’s an excellent coach, the whole of Ireland are very happy with him, very proud of him, and he has the players playing for him.”
Ireland open their campaign in Paris tomorrow week and the former Racing 92 coach is expecting an away win.
“I think the French are in a mess,” he said.
“I would be disappointed (with a loss). It is an intimidating ground, it is the first game, the French are a team where bizarrely they can find confidence from the game itself as opposed to what’s happened before the game, but for me all roads point to an Irish victory.”
Meanwhile, Rhys Webb has been ruled out of the entire championship after suffering a knee injury in training that could have ended his Wales career.
The 29-year-old will needed “further assessment” on the injury before his recovery period can be determined, but it’s understood that the British and Irish Lions scrum-half will not play any part in the championship, with head coach Warren Gatland calling up uncapped Cardiff Blues No 9 Tomos Williams as a result.
A Welsh Rugby Union statement read: “Rhys Webb has been released from the Wales national squad due to a knee injury. The injury will restrict Webb’s involvement in the campaign and further assessments are required to establish the best course of action.”
With Webb due to move to French side Toulon in the summer — a switch that will make him ineligible for selection for the Wales national team — it could potentially be the end of his international career. He will be eligible for this summer’s tour of the United States and Argentina, fitness-depending, as it is part of the 2017/18 calendar.
But Gatland has already stated his intention to use the three Tests against South Africa (in Washington) and Argentina as chances to develop squad depth and play fringe players, with his attentions very firmly on the 2019 Rugby World Cup, meaning that Webb is an unlikely candidate to be included for the tour.
Should he miss out on selection, Webb will be ineligible for Wales until he joins one of the four Welsh regions as 31-cap scrum-half is a long way short of the 60-cap threshold that would omit him from the selection policy, and should he honour his full Toulon deal that runs until 2021, he would be 32 years old before the chance to return becomes available.
The news is another devastating blow to Wales’ hopes of competing for the Six Nations title, and comes just one day after Gatland claimed that he expects his side to win the championship, despite the growing number of injuries on his hands.