Wife sees funny side of O’Gara’s Late Late car crash
Surreal show with full house of dodgy remarks
RUGBY legend Ronan O’Gara could have found himself in a scrum with his wife after his comments on a rowdy Late Late Show, during which he said ‘I wouldn’t be nervous getting up on Jessica but I’d be nervous kicking a ball.’
Fortunately for him, wife Jessica was amused. Jessica and their five children were at home in France at the time. ‘I didn’t see it live, would you believe, as I fell asleep with the hour difference,’ she said. ‘However, I saw the funny side.’
And the rugby star made sure to call his wife before she saw it on social media. ‘I woke up to his call after the show. We were both laughing,’ she said. IT WAS as if Copperface Jacks had suddenly seized control of the Montrose studios. As The Late Late Show Valentine’s Eve special opened, all the men in the youthful audience were on stage while all the women remained in their seats. One of them was asked to pick three men with whom she would have speed dates during the show.
When Ryan Tubridy asked the men to do something to impress her, one of them started breakdancing. In 2015. From the off, this was never going to be anything less than surreal.
Tubridy started showing a laddish side that didn’t sit easily on his gangly shoulders, and the audience, the better for more than a few scoops, played along.
‘It’s like the students’ union bar in here,’ Tubridy said.
Louis Walsh opened proceedings, and was followed by the odious Katie Hopkins. She played to the audience, wrapping herself around a man called Mark who had hollered out the timeless line: ‘I’d ride ya!’
Across the country, grannies were falling face down into their Complan as a countdown of RTÉ’s steamiest moments unrolled throughout the show – including Fran in Love/Hate having sex with Donna as she wore a costume from Avatar.
Later, the organiser of a service that puts women in touch with older men who pay their college fees in return for company was interviewed. One Irish ‘Sugar Baby’ told how she would receive thousands every month just to listen to some middleaged man, but things took a turn. ‘He wanted to move further so I asked him what that meant,’ she said. Well, it’s not Galway, love.
But the car-crash came in an interview with Ronan O’Gara, who was asked if kicking thousands of points or his five children were his greatest achievement: ‘I wouldn’t be nervous getting up on Jessica [his wife] but I would be nervous kicking a ball.’ The audience laughed like drains.
Dickie Rock popped up to sing, wearing plasters on his throat. On Twitter, someone tweeted: ‘Poor Dickie – they were warned to muzzle Hopkins.’
Muzzles for just about everyone involved would have made much more sense.