Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Ronan O'Gara breaks silence on the Munster head coach vacancy

La Rochelle's Irish head coach Ronan O'Gara (Photo by Romain Perrocheau/AFP via Getty Images)

La Rochelle boss Ronan O’Gara has shared his thoughts on the sudden head coach vacancy at Munster following last Tuesday’s departure of Graham Rowntree just six games into the 2024/25 United Rugby Championship season.

ADVERTISEMENT

Corkman O’Gara was the out-half when Munster won the Heineken European Cup in 2006 and 2008 and has been frequently linked with a return to his native Irish province throughout a coaching career that began at Racing 92 in 2013.

Having had a stint in New Zealand as an assistant with the Crusaders, O’Gara is now back in France where he led La Rochelle to back-to-back Champions Cup titles in 2022 and 2023.

Video Spacer

Which Northern team will stop New Zealand? | The Breakdown

The Breakdown discusses which match will be the toughest for the All Blacks on their upcoming Northern Tour. Having already beaten Japan (since filming this) they face England, Ireland, France, and Italy.

Video Spacer

Which Northern team will stop New Zealand? | The Breakdown

The Breakdown discusses which match will be the toughest for the All Blacks on their upcoming Northern Tour. Having already beaten Japan (since filming this) they face England, Ireland, France, and Italy.

He emerged as a candidate to fill the England role vacated by Eddie Jones in the winter of 2022, but he instead signed a long-term extension with his Top 14 club that will keep him in that league until the summer of 2027.

That deal, however, didn’t stop him being instantly linked to Munster as soon as it emerged that Rowntree had exited after a little over two years in charge. Head of operations Ian Costello has been handed the reins on a temporary basis, with assistant Mike Prendergast tipped to ultimately fill the vacancy.

United Rugby Championship

P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Leinster
6
6
0
0
29
2
Glasgow
6
4
2
0
23
3
Bulls
5
4
1
0
19
4
Lions
5
4
1
0
18
5
Connacht
6
3
3
0
18
6
Scarlets
6
3
2
1
16
7
Ulster
6
3
3
0
16
8
Cardiff Rugby
6
3
3
0
16
9
Sharks
5
3
2
0
15
10
Edinburgh
6
2
4
0
13
11
Benetton
6
2
3
1
13
12
Munster
6
2
4
0
12
13
Stormers
5
2
3
0
10
14
Ospreys
6
2
4
0
10
15
Dragons RFC
6
1
5
0
7
16
Zebre
6
1
5
0
7

O’Gara ruled himself out of the running during his latest weekly appearance on OTB Breakfast, a morning radio show in Ireland. “It’s the story of the week,” he said on Friday, reflecting on Rowntree’s departure. “It’s big news, obviously, because it doesn’t happen very often.

ADVERTISEMENT

“When something like that happens everyone is taken by surprise and everyone wants to know what happened. I’d be in that category too.

“I am contracted to 2027 (at La Rochelle), so one of the things I learned from players I played with and other people who managed me was that a contract is a contract. I signed to 2027 and unless I get fired, I’ll be there until 2027.”

With Andy Farrell’s Ireland contract set to expire following that year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia, O’Gara has been touted with a switch to the international game. “Of course, it’s the highest level of the game. Test rugby, there is a drive inside you to coach,” he suggested.

“Ireland are one of the best countries in the world that you could win a World Cup with. That has has always been a goal for us but I have always been short-term focused. It has worked well for me and I enjoy that, I enjoy the journey… I know what I am doing this week, next month. The rest takes care of itself.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 tickets application phase is now open! Apply now.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 43 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

286 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat
Search