It is reported this morning that Ronan O’Gara has played his final game for Munster and Newstalk’s Oisin Langan spoke with former Ireland and Munster scrum half Tom Tierney about the impact O’Gara’s decision will have on Munster, and what legacy he will leave behind.

“He’s like all great players, they’re all unique.

“It’s just something that Munster will have to accept.

“It’s going to be a new era for Munster. There’s no way that you’re going to have the same type of player replacement,” Tierney said.

As Munster move forward they will face the test of transition from the era of players such as Stringer, O’Gara and O’Connell, and Tierney feels that presents both challenges and opportunity for the province.

“O’Gara has been there for 14, 15 years now and everything good about Munster revolved around, obviously a super forward pack, but 9 and 10 were crucial to it and Stringer and O’Gara were the lynchpins.”

“They’re at a crossroads now.

“It’s going to be a great opportunity for whoever gets the number ten jersey now,” he said.

Tierney also talked to Oisin about Joe Schmidt and the likelihood the Leinster coach is due to take over as Ireland head coach, and the importance for Leinster’s immediate future that they move swiftly to get the right man in to replace the departing New Zealander.

Tierney believes Munster can never replace the record breaking out half, such is his unique set of talents.

“I think Leinster really, really have to move quickly to make sure that they don’t drop the ball in relation to getting a replacement in place as soon as possible.

“The void he’s going to leave at Leinster is going to be massive and how they actually fill that is going to be crucial to how they go forward for the next couple of seasons.”

Listen to Tierney’s full interview via the player below

Image: Munster's Ronan O'Gara with his son Rua after the game
©INPHO/Billy Stickland