Well this doesn't equate to best by any means. His importance was only brought about by the failure of the Irish provincial setup to produce another player of any sort of standard.
Again, the points thing comes from being an automatic pick at 10 internationally due to a lack of options. He did tour three times with the Lions that's true, with his most memorable contributions being getting the **** kicked out of him in Australia, tackling his own player in New Zealand (with the Kiwi commentators saying it was probably his first tackle of the tour, just to give you a view of how he was held internationally), and costing the Lions 10 points in the final 10 minutes of the second test in South Africa, and eventually the tour. He never rose above 2nd choice (was usually 3rd), and when you consider that his competition came from the likes of Dan Parks and Andy Goode you can see why he toured. I wouldn't necessarily use that as a benchmark. As for the Heineken Cup award, I was pretty much against that from the time it was given out. O'Gara had the easiest job in European club rugby. That's not to say he didn't do it well, but there are very few decent flyhalves who wouldn't have looked excellent behind that pack. Andy Goode looked excellent behind the Leicester pack, but was muck.
There are few enough games where I'd say he had the same impact that O'Driscoll and to a lesser extent O'Connell had in their more 'grab the game by the balls' moments. As often as not, when the going got tough, the red face came out and Rog got shakey - the entire 09' grnad slam campaign being as good an example as any.
That really doesn't float tbh. He played inside a centre that won the 2005 6 Nations player of the year award and our greatest player of all time. Being part of a good backline does not make you a good player. A good defence knew that they could essentially ignore O'Gara in attack and focus on our centres and outside backs, making things much harder for them.
Again, he was very poor in 2009. And I couldn't give a smeg about Triple Crowns in all honesty.
He was an awful defender. He was a poor runner. He was an okay passer. Being a very good tactical kicker doesn't make up for those flaws I'm afraid. On the international stage he was an average player. Stephen Jones will never be considered one of the great Welsh outhalves, yet he was always a step above Rog. When the two competed for a Lions shirt, it wasn't even a contest. I'd put him on a level with someone like Charlie Hodgeson or Toby Flood, probably being slightly more consistent than the former.
A team's achievements does not reflect the achievements of the individual. Stephen Donald has a World Cup medal and he's bloody useless. In terms of overall ability and nothing else, he wouldn't be in my top 5 Irish 10's.
