Ronan O’Gara singles out ‘the main culprit’ for La Rochelle’s ‘wasted season’

Ronan O’Gara has named himself as “the main culprit” for La Rochelle failing to reach the end-of-season play-offs in the French Top 14 for the first time on his watch.

The Irishman was promoted from head coach to director of rugby at the French club in 2021 and they finished fifth, second and fifth on the table in his initial three seasons at the helm. They lost out in the play-offs on all three occasions to Toulouse, exiting in the 2022 quarter-finals, the 2023 final and the 2024 semi-final.

However, there will be no play-off appearance for La Rochelle in 2025 as Saturday’s painful 18-32 defeat at Pau in the final round of the regular season resulted in them dropping out of the top six and finishing in seventh place.

Despite a frustrating campaign where O’Gara regularly bemoaned the inconsistencies of his team, they responded to their Champions Cup round-of-16 elimination at home to Munster in early April with a five-match winning run in the Top 14 that had them in the play-offs places heading into this weekend’s final round of matches.

“What worked so far is over…”

They were leading 15-11 at Pau thanks to a 63rd-minute Hoani Bosmorin try but they surrendered that advantage eight minutes later to a converted try, and a 73rd-minute yellow card was then followed by the concession of two more converted tries.

But, rather than blame his players for the indisciplined late collapse which cost La Rochelle their place in the play-offs, O’Gara instead pointed the finger at himself as he was still serving his latest touchline suspension.

The coach has regularly fallen foul of the rugby authorities during his time in France and he copped his latest ban just last month, a five-game sanction for “actions against a match official” which curtailed his match day involvement for the end-of-season run-in, including the round 26 trip to Pau.

Speaking with reporters following La Rochelle’s elimination, O’Gara admitted: “The coach was especially missing. We talk about discipline all week, but when the coach is suspended, he can’t have any impact. The main culprit is me. I’m frustrated, angry, disappointed. And I’m sad for the fans after all the bad games they have had. I’m sad for Brice (Dulin), I’m very sad for Tawera (Kerr-Barlow). He deserves much more than this.”

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Further dwelling on his team’s exit, he added: “I didn’t expect that. I ask myself: how can you play like that in a match of this importance? It was more like the team of February or March than the one of the last few weeks.

“There was a lot of hesitation at every level when it came to running, kicking, passing… We had won five matches in a row to secure a place (in the top six) and it was as if we thought we were going to arrive and get the job done. But sport, fortunately or unfortunately, isn’t like that… Congratulations to Pau.”

With several star players now moving on, O’Gara believes the 2022 and 2023 Champions Cup winners are set for a summer of enormous change as they look to up their game for next season.

“A lot of things need to change,” he suggested. “We need to really think things through over the summer to find solutions.

“What worked so far is over. It won’t work anymore. We need to find a formula to regain a normal level of motivation and ambition. It’s the end of a cycle. There’s no other way. We have to accept reality.

“Because when we accept it, we have the ability to progress. Conversely, if we continue to avoid the truth, then it ends badly. We need a fresh start with new players to create internal competition. And I also hope to progress in my coaching with my staff.

“We took a huge blow and we are going to watch the final stages on the couch. It’s the hardest thing in sport, especially when you have had some great moments. But we deserve what is coming to us. It’s a wasted year, a wasted season.”

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