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Ronan O'Gara's departing message to the Crusaders ahead of Super Rugby final

(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

By Patrick McKendry, NZ Herald

Ronan O’Gara’s time with the Crusaders is coming to an end. The former Lions test first-five will head to France in a few days for a new coaching job but he isn’t about to shut the door on a return to Christchurch.

And, no matter the result of the Super Rugby final between his side and the Jaguares in Christchurch tonight, he will be welcomed back.

O’Gara is without question the highest profile foreign former international to take a Super Rugby coaching job in New Zealand and he has made a mark in Christchurch both with his quality as a coach but also his humility and openness to experience new ways of doing things.

The 42-year-old former first-five, who played 130 tests and is Ireland’s highest test points scorer, had a hard act to follow at the start of last season when replacing Leon MacDonald, who went to the Blues.

But he quickly adapted and made his own mark with his sharp instincts and delivery, particularly on defence, where he brought in a new system which revolved around watching the ball more than the opposition player, a relative revolution in the small world of New Zealand rugby.

“Yesterday I had a bit of a sad moment but you have to snap back into reality,” O’Gara said as he reflected on his departure.

“It’s a special club. I attacked it at the start and thankfully a few of the boys got on board with my ideas and we grew but if we don’t do the business [tonight] it doesn’t count for anything.”

Asked whether he had a message for supporters and the city in general, O’Gara, who has five children, said: “If the school is an example of the people of Christchurch, it was brilliant.

“They were so friendly and accommodating and warm. Obviously what happened earlier in the year … the resilience of the people, the warmth of the people — great people, fantastic area. For me, I am young, I feel there will be a twist in it and I’ll be back. In that regard I’ve given it my best shot and hopefully the boys will feel the same. It will be with a heavy heart that I leave.”

O’Gara has given such value during his two years at the Crusaders alongside Robertson, and the pair have become so closely aligned, that it’s not too difficult to imagine them both coaching the All Blacks at some stage and probably fairly soon.

Steve Hansen’s successor won’t be known until after the World Cup, and while O’Gara’s departure as head coach of La Rochelle (a club Hansen played for) may make things a little more complicated in terms of Robertson’s ascension to the top job, stranger things have happened. O’Gara presumably has a clause in his contract whereby a top international coaching offer takes precedence.

O’Gara has one final job to do in Christchurch and he can leave satisfied that he has done everything he can to bring title No 10 to the Crusaders. If they beat the Jaguares, Robertson will be the first coach to win three titles in a row, and given the issues in Christchurch this year and the closeness of the competition, that would be quite an achievement.

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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