‘Whatever he wants to say is fine’ – Ross Byrne refuses to be drawn into war of words with Ronan O’Gara
Leinster's Ross Byrne during the Champions Cup quarter-final with La Rochelle. Photo: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Ross Byrne has refused to be drawn into a war of words with Ronan O’Gara after the La Rochelle coach admitted he planned to “derail” Leinster through the out-half in last month’s Champions Cup quarter-final.
Byrne delivered a man-of-the-match display to help knock the holders out of the tournament, with O’Gara later admitting he had focused much of La Rochelle’s game-plan around the Leinster ‘10’.
Writing in his newspaper column, O’Gara said:“In the lead-up to the Leinster game, I focused a lot of strategy around Ross Byrne and how we could derail Leinster through him. On the day, the Leinster out-half was excellent, everything he touched turned to gold.
“That said, I would still go back with the same plan if we were going at Leinster this weekend but credit to Ross Byrne, he is much better with the ball than I gave him credit for.”
Leinster's Ross Byrne on facing Northampton Saints at Croke Park
Byrne, who is set to start in Saturday’s semi-final against Northampton, played down the Munster legend’s comments about him, insisting he didn’t view them about him as a backhanded compliment.
“Not really to be honest,” Byrne (29) said.“Whatever he [O’Gara] wants to say is fine. I don’t read too much into the media. I’d say most teams each week would probably speak about the opposition ‘10’, so I wouldn’t say it’s anything too new.
“I was happy [with my performance]. The most important thing was the performance of the team. I’m not too worried about how I perform as long as the team is going well. That’s my main objective. Overall, I was pleased.”
Meanwhile, Northampton winger Ollie Sleightholme (head) and back-row Lewis Ludlam (shoulder) are injury doubts for Saturday.
