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O'Gara shares dream of winning RWC, but not necessarily with Ireland
By Josh Raisey
La Rochelle boss Ronan O'Gara has set his sights on winning a World Cup in the future as a coach.
The 128-cap former Ireland international has won the biggest prizes in the club game from back-to-back Super Rugby titles as an assistant coach at the Crusaders to leading La Rochelle to back-to-back Investec Champions Cups, and now has the Webb Ellis Cup in his crosshairs.
Speaking on the "Super Moscato Show" on French radio station RMC, he made it quite clear that he wants to win the international trophy that eluded him as a player, but isn't fussed who he wins it with.
The Munster legend is viewed by many as the Ireland coach in waiting, but he said in the interview that he likes the idea of coaching France too.
O'Gara has not objected to the notion of coaching teams other than Ireland in the Test arena, and was even attracted to the England job following Eddie Jones' sacking in 2022.
"At the moment, I would like to have the ability to win the World Cup," he said, as reported by French outlet Midi Olympique (translated by Google).
"I dream of winning things, whether with Ireland or I like France. I'm not French. I'm trying to prove myself and put my name in this debate. It's possible that for Ireland, the next coach will be a New Zealander, a Southerner, African or an Australian, that’s how it is."
The idea of working under a coach in Test rugby is out of the question now for O'Gara, who said he now has the "taste" of being head coach.
"Being a member of the staff? No, I don't think so," he added.
"When you get a taste of the number 1 position, of these responsibilities, it’s difficult."
Despite the huge success O'Gara has experienced on the west coast of France, he admitted that "everything is not good" currently after crashing out of the Champions Cup at the hands of Leinster and then losing to Castres at the weekend.
La Rochelle are clinging onto a play-off berth in the Top 14 by the skin of their teeth currently, placed in sixth, as they chase down a title they have never won in their history, let alone while O'Gara has been in charge.
But the Irishman said that only La Rochelle and Toulouse have a culture of winning, which he hopes will help his side out as they reach the climax of the season.
"We have already won two European Cup titles but that is not enough , even if some think that is enough. I am a liar if I say that everything is good because everything is not good [...] In the Top 14, it is in the crisis that you find something that you don't know about your team.
"If we are not efficient, we will not be in the six. If we are, the only other team which has the culture of winning is Toulouse. But currently it is 70/30 against them, but if we reach the final, it will be 50/50 The other teams have not won titles and this liability will count in the rest of the competition."
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Latest Comments
England have all the makings of a good team. We know that, and we have known that for years (including when Eddie was delivering disappointing results). But sometimes the positive comments about under-performing teams sound like describing a darts player as "fantastic, aside from their accuracy".
Its a trivial observation to say that scoring more points and preventing more points against you would result in better outcomes. And points difference does not mean much either, as it is generally less than 5 points with top teams. Usain Bolt would win the 100m sprint by 200 milliseconds (approximately two blinks of an eye), but that doesn't mean the others could easily beat him.
Also, these kinds of analyses tend to talk about how the team in question would just need to do X, Y and Z to win, but assume that opponents don't make any changes themselves. This is nonsense, as it is always the case that both teams go away with a list of work-ons. If we're going to think about what would have happened if team A had made that tackle, kicked that goal or avoided that penalty, the n let's think about what would have happened if team B had passed to that overlap, avoided that card, or executed that lineout maul.
There are lots of things that England can focus on for improvement, but for me the main observation is that they have not been able to raise their game when it matters. Playing your best game when it counts is what makes champions, and England have not shown that. And, for me, that's a coaching thing.
I expected Borthwick to build a basics-first, conservative culture, minimizing mistakes, staying in the game, and squeezing out wins against fancier opponents and game plans. It's not that he isn't building something, but it has taken disappointingly long, not least if you compare it to Australia since Schmidt took over, or SA after Rassie took over.
Go to commentsYeah he went ot France to develop himself because Aussie showed no interest. More fool them.
But JW thinks all SH players only ever go to Europe for the money which is facile to the nth degree.🤣
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