PETER JACKSON
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW
Ronan O’Gara usually stands out in any company, all the more so now in an age when too many coaches talk a lot and say very little. The Irishman who has done almost as much for European Champions Cup rugby as Joe Montana did for American football is rarely afraid to speak his mind and say something of interest.
The latest example will have chimed with countless thousands of us driven to despair by the sterility of the Lions last summer.
O’Gara left no doubt that he felt the same, albeit in the context of a new Heineken campaign. A lesser figure might have thought as much but not said so, fearful of offending those who have long exalted the Lions to untouchable status, the most sacred of cows.
“I think the Lions gave us a big whack,” he said in a BBC interview. “I think the rugby played on that tour was not a representation of what we stand for on this side of the world. It was a massive disappointment to see the best of our players playing like that.”
O’Gara then contrasted the summer non-event with the Autumn Series, a vibrant month leading towards the most climactic of finishes when England, France, Wales and Ireland beat South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina over the same weekend.
There had never been a scoreline like it:
Europe 4, Southern Hemisphere 0. “It’s probably gone a complete 360 (degrees),” O’Gara said referring to his starting point with the Lions. “Crowds back, the best of rugby back and the best of competitions to come with Europe and the Six Nations.”
O’Gara made his last stand as a player in Munster‘s narrow semifinal defeat at Clermont eight years ago. He makes his next one in La Rochelle against Glasgow Warriors this afternoon in his elevated role as head coach of last season’s beaten finalists.
Win or lose, he will be worth listening to. At this point, it is worth informing those who do not know – or reminding those who have forgotten – that one of O’Gara’s sporting heroes happens to be a fellow citizen of Cork whose unforgiving brand of punditry elevates him to a class all by himself: Roy Keane.
“It’s strange to have a hero who is only a few years older but hero is the best word to describe my admiration for him,” O’Gara wrote in his autobiography. “I always loved his drive. His attitude.
“The way he turned himself into a great player with less talent than other top players. The way he kept going for it, regardless of the challenge or the obstacles.”
A long-standing supporter of his native Munster, Keane the ex-player was once granted access within the All Black squad to observe their training routines and man-management practices. O’Gara has trodden a similar path with impressive results.
After winning a Top 14 title with Racing, he made the long haul from Paris to Christchurch and the Crusaders, a two-season stint which coincided with back-to-back Super Rugby titles.
Last season, in tandem with ex-All Black Jono Gibbes, La Rochelle reached the finals of the Champions Cup and Top 14, losing to Toulouse on both occasions. The New Zealander having relocated to Clermont, O’Gara is in overall charge at La Rochelle with the avowed aim of going one better than last season.
At his current rate of progress, the most prodigious of all Ireland fly-halves will surely be a leading contender for the next Lions tour, to Australia in 2025, always assuming that the damage wrought by the last one will have been repaired by then.
