#3. Ronan O’Gara (Ireland) – 2009
During the 2nd Test of the 2009 Lions series in South Africa. The Lions were on fire for the 60 minutes, then with South Africa coming back into the game replacement fly half Ronan O’Gara came on and had a nightmare cameo, costing 10 points and the series.
The first act of O’Gara’s nightmare appearance was to get run over by South African number 8 Pierre Spies, but Tom Croft was covering him and made the tackle.
The second act was to get run over again, this time by centre Jaque Fourie, and this time the cover could not prevent O’Gara’s tackling frailties from costing the Lions a try as Fourie went over and Morné Steyn converted and South Africa took the lead.
The Lions did however claw the score back to level, but then in the final minute came O’Gara’s third act of the match which was very costly. O’Gara put a high ball and then made a “clumsy” error running into Fourie du Preez in the air which led to a penalty for South Africa which Morné Steyn booted over with ease at high altitude, which won the Springboks the match and series, and was the worst moments of O’Gara’s career.