Italy 11 Ireland 13

RONAN O’Gara may no longer be first choice fly-half but he insists his expertise was needed to guide Ireland when RBS 6 Nations disaster beckoned.

The Irish scraped home 13- 11 at the Stadio Flaminio, with O’Gara landing the winning drop goal two minutes from time, denying Italy a first tournament victory in the fixture.

It is the type of cameo from the bench O’Gara is making his speciality since seeing rival Jonathan Sexton claim the number ten jersey.

While acknowledging Sexton enjoyed an accomplished afternoon, O’Gara believes his own nous was key in preventing the Six Nations’ greatest upset since Italy joined the championship in 2000.

‘‘At that stage in the game you go at it and don’t think too much, you just do your job,’’ said the Munster halfback.

‘‘The ability to do that comes with experience. As a youngster you don’t understand that.

‘‘I was told that once but it’s when you get in my position – and I’ve been lucky to steer the Ireland and Munster ship for ten years – that you understand it.

‘‘Then someone like Jonny comes in and he’s really good but to continue the analogy, when the ship hits choppy waters you bring someone in.

‘‘Jonny played well, but I got backed to come on and try to win the game.

‘‘It’s important to have two fellas fighting it out because we can offer a lot going forward.’’ Italy allowed opponents rated 1/8 favourites to wriggle off the hook having done the hard work in fashioning a superb 76th-minute try for full-back Luke McLean.

Leading 11-10, and with Ireland flanker Denis Leamy in the sin-bin, they just needed to collect the restart and run down the clock.

Instead they immediately surrendered possession, enabling O’Gara to strike, before making a hash with their own drop goal attempt at the death.

For O’Gara the nail-biting conclusion evoked memories of the 2007 World Cup pool clash with Georgia, which Ireland won 14-10 after surviving a desperate late assault by the heavy underdogs.

‘‘We were leading when Jonny went off and then Italy scored...it was looking like Georgia again and I was thinking ‘no, don’t do this’,’’ he said.