LONG READ Munster-ROG reunion a ‘love story’ but no return likely for La Rochelle boss

“People maybe under-estimate Mike, and I don’t think they should.”

Ronan O’Gara and Mike Prendergast’s rugby story intertwined, for the first time, in 1995. O’Gara’s Presentation Brothers College met a Crescent College team featuring Prendergast and David Wallace in the Munster Senior Schools Cup final.

Both schools, one from Cork, the other Limerick, shared Senior Cup titles from 1989 through 1996. When O’Gara and Prendergast faced off, at Musgrave Park, the Cork lads came out on top, 14-7.

Six years later, with O’Gara on the faster track, the pair were reunited as Munster team-mates. Prendergast played 48 senior matches for Munster, during two stints, and had spells in England and France. O’Gara won two European Cups with Munster, a Grand Slam with Ireland and toured three times with the British & Irish Lions.

By the time O’Gara hung up his playing boots, in 2013, Prendergast was well down the coaching path, as director of rugby with Young Munster. That same year, the friends set off for France and the world of top-level coaching. O’Gara headed to Paris and was skills coach at Racing 92, under Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers. Prendergast came in as Grenoble skills and attack coach, under Bernard Jackman. To get himself back up to speed with the French game, he even signed up for Fédérale 1 (French third division) rugby with Chambéry. “I met a couple of hard nuts down there, I can tell ya.”

Within four years, both men were on the move. Prendergast took on the backs coach gig at Oyonnax, while O’Gara headed further afield – to New Zealand. He worked under Scott Robertson as his dominant Crusaders swept to titles two and three of their Super Rugby five-in-a-row (plus two Super Rugby Aotearoa titles in 2020 and 2021).

Between winning with Munster in 2008 and again in 2022, that was a long time between drinks. As a sports person, let me tell ya, I was very thirsty!

By 2019, O’Gara had returned to France for a head coach role, under Jono Gibbes, at La Rochelle. Prendergast was now at Racing 92, after a season with Stade Français. By 2022, the Cork native had fully taken the reins (Gibbes departed in 2020) and was a European Cup-winning coach. “Between winning with Munster in 2008 and again in 2022, that was a long time between drinks,” O’Gara reflects. “And, as a sports person, let me tell ya, I was very thirsty!”

Prendergast returned to Munster, around the same time, and was backs coach at his home province, with Graham Rowntree in the top job. Within 12 months, he was celebrating a United Rugby Championship title, while O’Gara was doubling down on Leinster’s heartbreak, en route to another Champions Cup triumph.

The highs of 2023 were replaced with some crushing lows in 2024, notably a last-gasp La Rochelle defeat by Toulouse, in the Top 14 final. Munster reached the last 16 of the Champions Cup and the URC semi-finals, but never kicked on from ending their 12-year trophy drought. By October 2024, Rowntree was gone. Prendergast took on more coaching responsibilities but, ultimately, lost out on the top job to Clayton McMillan.

“I was disappointed, obviously,” Prendergast admitted, on Tuesday. “It didn’t happen now, but maybe sometime down the future it will.”

The following day, it was confirmed by the IRFU that Prendergast will be Ireland’s attack coach for the senior side’s end-of-season Tests against Georgia and Portugal.

“Maybe, from the outside, it is a great reward,” says O’Gara. “But Mike would have credentials to be the senior attack coach. I think people maybe under-estimate Mike, and I don’t think they should. So, with (missing out on) the Munster job or Ireland attack coach job (last year), I think he’d be disappointed. Without pushing his case too much, he’s a quality coach. On the other side of it, maybe this is the minimum he deserves, to get his foot in the door and go on this trip.”

“That support means a lot, especially coming from someone like ROG,” Prendergast told me. “He did it as a player and has been doing it now, as a coach. It’s a nice thing to hear and I was very grateful. It didn’t work out this time, but you can’t dwell on it too much.”

It has been almost 12 years since O’Gara and Prendergast moved to France with their young families to make a decent crack at this coaching life.

I think timing has an awful lot to do with it…it doesn’t discount anything happening in the future, with the province or with Ireland.

Prendergast has been back at Munster for the guts of three eventful seasons. O’Gara has never looked further from returning to his home province. Back in 2016, the dream scenario for Munster fans had been O’Gara as backs coach and Paul O’Connell as forwards coach, with Anthony Foley retained in the top job. Rassie Erasmus then arrived, stirred souls, anointed Johann van Graan and left. O’Gara continued his education in France, got the call from Robertson and never looked back.

For O’Gara, if he ever decides to move home, it is the national job he wants. In May 2023, after La Rochelle’s back-to-back Champions Cup wins, the 48-year-old told the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly, “Yes, of course I want to coach Ireland, as well, but you have got to earn that right.”

I asked Prendergast why his old friend had never been tempted back to Munster. “ROG went to Racing, did very well, and has had a huge career over there,” he replied. “I think (he hasn’t come back) for a number of reasons. He’s with a club that were a whisker away from winning the Top 14, which is a big driver for him – winning that. He’s won two Champions Cups in the last three years. So, you’re talking about a very big European powerhouse and he feels he’s right in the middle of that, at the moment.

“With coaching, as with playing, I think timing has an awful lot to do with it. The time he’s in, right now, is with La Rochelle, and he has built his career right up to it. I’m sure, one day, if he feels there is the opportunity, at the right time, at home, it is something he will look at. Right now, in terms of his own career and his family being over there, you have to take all these things into consideration. His kids are obviously in school, in France, and have their own interests. That’s where it is at, but it doesn’t discount anything happening in the future, with the province or with Ireland.”

Given the importance of this Saturday’s Champions Cup last-16 clash between La Rochelle and Munster, there was a lot of interest in media appearances from leading figures from both sides. Munster captain Tadhg Beirne commented: “La Rochelle’s success is a testament to ROG and the work he has done there. He has brought delight to their fan-base and the rugby community. They live for it. I’ve seen some photos and videos, over the years, of them bringing silverware back, and the massive crowds celebrating. It is pretty special.”

Jack Crowley, doing a publicity push for Pinergy (but with no Munster contract updates to provide), reflected on O’Gara trying to sign him for La Rochelle and his potential coaching return to Ireland. “As a Munster man, he has a connection with the club that he’ll keep forever,” said Crowley. “But I can’t speak for ROG’s ambitions or aspirations, so you’ll have to ask him yourself.”

Handily enough, I am able to ask O’Gara. He was typically considered and honest with his response. “Would you ever see yourself, maybe down the line, ever going back to Munster?” I enquire.

“I don’t think so, no,” O’Gara replies.

People back in Ireland may not appreciate… yeah, maybe they do appreciate it, after what we’ve done, but this is a huge club.

“I’m with a club, here, that is a massive club – one of the biggest in Europe. Yeah, it’s going through a sticky patch at the minute, without doubt. That happens in cycles; it happens in sport. Once you have an environment and a brains trust that keep wanting to get better, which (chief executive) Pierre Venayre and (chairman) Vincent Merling want to do, it gets me excited to build a squad.

“We’ve made some signings for next year… now, that’s too early to speak about. There are certainly weaknesses in our set-up, but we can eradicate them. People back in Ireland may not appreciate… yeah, maybe they do appreciate it, after what we’ve done, but this is a huge club.”

In the past two seasons, O’Gara did not hide behind coy statements or dismiss links when asked about head coach jobs with Ireland, France, Australia, Wales and England. “I’d like to win a World Cup,” he told RMC Radio, in April 2024. “I dream of winning things, whether that’s with Ireland or France. I like it.”

With La Rochelle struggling, by his own admission, this season – 13 defeats in 24 games overall, and lying 10th in the Top 14 – O’Gara has now parked all the international rugby speculation. He is contracted with La Rochelle until 2027 and, he insists, will be honouring that contract.

Levani Botia feels the Irishman should not be so quick to place all the blame of Stade Rochelais’ faltering season at his own door. “The coaches are doing their jobs,” the Fijian says, “and it is for us, as players, to do ours on the field. We are the ones that must execute their game-plans. Sometimes there is a lot of focus on the coaches, because we lost some games, but we have to be strong as a team to back them up.”

The final word goes to O’Gara, as he searches for a spark. The sight of Munster red can be fuel for the fire, but not too much.

“One of the great learnings for me,” he says, “was that we lost the European Cup from being too emotional, in 2000. We all cried our eyes out, the night before, documenting to each other what it meant to play for Munster. Then, the next day, you’re empty.

“It has been a great thing, with going to New Zealand. Those guys channel their energy and emotions in a different way, and you pick up learnings there. You see guys that mess before games, and aren’t serious, but who are then able to switch it, you know? Everyone is different. It depends on their background and their upbringing, their education, what works for them. You’ve just got to know what being yourself looks like, for every different person. And it’s all very different. Once you have that, it’s just letting people be themselves.

There will be some atmosphere in the ground, outside the ground and in the town. There will be brilliant craic. The place will be hopping.

“But in terms of the opposition and this game, if you’re to take a minute, or five, to reflect, it’s a fantastic story. It’s the two teams that have given me the most in rugby – Munster and La Rochelle – coming up against each other. Yeah, there will be a coaching staff and one set of supporters that will be disappointed. But it is a massive opportunity for seeing how good the game of rugby can be.

“I can guarantee you, they’ll all get on really well, and there will be some atmosphere in the ground, outside the ground and in the town. There will be brilliant craic. The place will be hopping. It will be buzzing. The forecast is meant to be good. The rain isn’t meant to come. And if the two teams can play up to scratch, we know how competitive Munster are and how confident they are, after the weekend. We’re at the opposite end of the scale, but big-game players have a big game in them. That’s what I’m banking on, this weekend.”

When pressed on this match meaning more, O’Gara agrees.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a love story. It definitely is.”