WILL HE STAY or will he go? The speculation surrounding Ronan O’Gara’s international future continued yesterday as the out-half and most of his Irish team-mates returned home from New Zealand.

With 11 of Ireland’s World Cup panel aged 31 or over, last weekend’s disappointing quarter-final exit seemed to signal the beginning of the end for many of the Grand Slam-winning “golden generation.”

Heading up the list of potential retirees was O’Gara. Immediately after the historic pool win over Australia, the Munster man indicated that he had decided to hang up his boots at the end of the tournament, saying “I’m done with Ireland in a few weeks.”

He later rowed back on that statement, claiming that his words were misinterpreted. And yesterday, speaking to RTÉ’s Pascal Sheehy after touching down in Cork Airport, the country’s leading points scorer hinted that it would be very difficult for him to turn his back on international rugby.

“Irish rugby’s been so good to me, you don’t walk away from that,” O’Gara said.

The other side of it is that I’m 34 and new talent is coming through, so we’ll see what happens but you don’t ever turn your back on a great country.

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