Eddie O’Sullivan: Why Ronan O’Gara coaching Munster would be ‘complicated’
La Rochelle head coach and Munster legend Ronan O'Gara, and former Ireland boss Eddie O'Sullivan.
Ronan O’Gara will only return to Ireland as head coach of the national team and not serve an ‘apprenticeship’ at one of the four provinces.
That is according to ex-Ireland boss Eddie O’Sullivan, who feels that the La Rochelle head honcho has done enough in his career to be considered as Andy Farrell’s successor.
The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) prefer candidates to serve time in the system before being considered for the Ireland head coach’s role, but O’Sullivan can’t see that happening with O’Gara.
It is ultimately up to the IRFU and the route they are willing to go down.
O’Gara’s international ambitions
“He’s proved his ability at the top end of the game. The question for the IRFU is whether they want him to do a kind of apprenticeship in Ireland before he gets the Ireland job. It’s as simple as that,” O’Sullivan told the Indo Sport podcast. “If they do want him to do that, they need to get him into an apprenticeship [with one of the provinces].
“There’s no question that ROG would love to coach Ireland, that probably at this point, given the amount of time in the club game, might be his raison d’etre.
“He hasn’t been shy of putting his name out there around other international jobs, but there’s no question or doubt that Ireland would be the prize for him. They would have to move reasonably quickly to get him in.
“On the other hand, if they go, ‘we know his form and know what he’s capable of, he doesn’t have to prove anything to us, we can bring him in cold into the Irish job’. He’s an Irishman, he knows the scene, he probably knows most of the players.
“There’s no question in my mind that ROG would jump at coming back to Ireland and getting his feet under the table in some way, shape or form. It’s really down to [performance director] David Humphreys’ thinking on this.”
Pressed on whether he thinks O’Gara needs to take a job with a province to be in Ireland contention, O’Sullivan responded: “I don’t actually, that’s my point.
“He’s proven his case. Fellas have come in to coach Ireland with, I suppose, less experience and probably less success as well.
“He doesn’t have anything to prove about his ability at that level of the game. International rugby is different and there’s a different set of skills around it in many ways.
“Having said that, no one’s doubting his ability. If you think he’s good enough, I don’t think he needs an apprenticeship.
“Maybe the apprenticeship might not be the best for him because where does he land? Where would we put him?”
Munster return?
O’Gara is of course a Munster legend and is one of their favourite sons, but O’Sullivan doesn’t believe that the former fly-half would consider joining the province.
“It’s a complicated place to go, not because it’s Munster but because he’s a Munsterman. The difference if he was to land at Munster in comparison to some stranger of a coach, like the current one, is there’s no expectations around the new coach if he’s not from there,” he said.
“If ROG was to land at Munster, there will be this whole thing around it about what he’s going to do, what he’s going to achieve – there will be a massive expectation around it, which put it way ahead of where Munster actually are.
“He will suddenly be under the gauntlet immediately and if there wasn’t instant success, that could affect his ‘apprenticeship’ for the big job.
“I could imagine him being reticent about it. Not that he doesn’t love Munster – he loves to see Munster succeeding – but it would be a difficult gig for him.
“I don’t think he needs the apprenticeship and I don’t think there’s an easy landing spot.”
