Ronan O'Gara reveals interest in dream team Lions coaching ticket

Ronan O’Gara has thrown his hat into the ring to help coach the British and Irish Lions on their 2025 tour to Australia. The La Rochelle boss is contracted to the back-to-back Champions Cup winners until 2027 and has ruled himself out as a potential Lions head coach as that would involve stepping away from his French club for a year.

However, with Ireland coach Andy Farrell tipped to become the tourists' main man, O’Gara has revealed he would be keen on getting involved in the belief that working with Farrell could be just the thing to bring the best out of him.

It was Keith Wood, O’Gara’s former 2001 Lions and Ireland teammate, who suggested in midweek that having O’Gara as part of a potential Farrell coaching ticket would be the makings of an Irish dream team in two years’ time.

This idea was put to O’Gara when he appeared on the Friday edition of the Off the Ball Breakfast show and his answer was revealing.

"Well it depends what role you are offered obviously,” he began. “If you are the head coach you would have to go and take a year sabbatical so that obviously wouldn't work because of my commitment to La Rochelle.

"But if there was a potential opening, depending on my willingness to show interest in it, the bosses here would be very open to hopefully trying to see me in my best version.

"Maybe my best version might be coaching with Andy Farrell with the Lions. That would be extremely exciting, I think, and I don't think reasonable people would put a stop to that.”

O’Gara hasn’t been shy about his ambitions to work in the Test arena. It was last year when he suggested he would like to coach England post the 2023 Rugby World Cup when Eddie Jones was originally set to move on.

That role went to Steve Borthwick last December when Jones was sacked and O’Gara had announced around the same time that he was signing an extension to remain in the Top 14.