IT DOESN’T COME as any surprise given that he’s nearing the end of his sixth season of coaching in the Top 14, but it’s still impressive to listen to Ronan O’Gara run through the first half of a press conference in fluent French.
The Cork accent is always there, of course, and his answers are pockmarked with “d’you know what I mean?” but the fluidity of his communication with the French journalists underlines how at home O’Gara is over there now.
He smiles when the questions start coming en anglais, pausing and joking that the “Ireland mafia are online” by way of acknowledging the interest back home as his La Rochelle team prepare for Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup final against Toulouse.
O’Gara’s four-season spell as an assistant with Racing 92 was an intro into the world of professional coaching and a successful one at that as the club won the Top 14 in 2016 and reached a Champions Cup decider the same year.
Thereafter, O’Gara took up an offer from the Crusaders and was a key part of Scott Robertson’s coaching team as the Christchurch franchise won two Super Rugby titles in his two-year spell in New Zealand.
France came calling again in 2019 and O’Gara took the chance to become a head coach for the first time with La Rochelle, working alongside director of rugby Jono Gibbes – who will depart this summer for Clermont and leave O’Gara to become the main man.
La Rochelle are clearly a club moving in the right direction and it’s obvious why O’Gara agreed to sign a new three-year deal that will keep him there through until 2024.
Les Maritimes were playing in the second-tier Pro D2 as recently as 2014 but they have emerged as a real force in recent times. This weekend’s Champions Cup finale pits them against longstanding Top 14 and European powerhouses Toulouse, who are a point ahead of them in the French league table at present.
“We’re at a very different stage of our journey in La Rochelle but the ambition is huge in this club,” says O’Gara.
“I don’t see any reason [for not aiming to match Toulouse] – we’ve got the best supporters, we’ve got an incredible stadium, we’ve got a brilliant surface to play on and what’s going to happen from now on is that you’re going to get players that want to come here because if you’ve got a good coaching group, good facilities and you’ve got a good playing group, why not?
“That’s the long-term project but it’s a slightly more exciting project for this Saturday.”
O’Gara before the clash with Leinster. Source: Dave Winter/INPHO
Indeed, O’Gara continually comes back to La Rochelle not underselling themselves ahead of this final. He felt they could beat Leinster in the semi-final if they played to their potential and that proved to be the case.
So while some will expect Toulouse’s history and pedigree to count at Twickenham, O’Gara looks at his own team with excitement.
“You’ve got Bourgarit, Skelton, Gourdon, Vito, Alldritt, Kerr-Barlow, West, Botia, Doumayrou, Dulin, Rhule, Leyds – there’s threats all over the pitch.
“For me, there’s a problem if you’re not in a Champions Cup final. Yeah, you’ve got to try and mix their forces together and get them playing for each other but that’s easy.
“I’m very proud of what this club has done and the opportunity it has given me but at the same time, there’s a game to play and you know I’m in it to win. I’m not in it to partake.”
While this final is new ground for La Rochelle as a club, there is plenty of trophy-winning experience within the squad including World Cup winners Victor Vito and Tawera Kerr-Barlow, as well as Champions Cup victor and key man Will Skelton.
Gibbes has tasted glory in this competition with Leinster, while O’Gara won two titles with Munster as a player, as well as feeling the pain of defeat in his first final in 2000 against Northampton.
“For me, a good student, a good player is open to how other people have failed,” says O’Gara.
“The boys here would know how I failed in my first Champions Cup final when I was really, really poor. So, for them to know that it’s OK to fail and they have seen their coach fail many times, that means that hopefully they can see this guy is vulnerable.
“If the guys feel that they can trust me, then I’m sure that will probably open up a little bit more and make for a deeper bond between me and the player.
“That’s very important because it is a long journey we have been on, but the season has gone like that [very quickly]. It has felt like we have been in a good dynamic and we have been enjoying it.”