Ronan O'Gara: Could I have been more neutral in my answer about England?

Ronan O'Gara: 'The club and the dressing room here in La Rochelle didn’t even get mildly aroused, much less vexed, by that tittle-tattle.' File Picture

Which of the self-imposed rules I applied to a fledgling coaching career have I broken this week?

That I wouldn’t tell a fly-half how to kick penalties? That I wouldn’t let myself down on the sideline? Or that I wouldn’t engage in idle job speculation?

Actually, only the former. Last January 2,  we lost a crazy game in Castres, 31-30. Ihaia West had a penalty to win it for La Rochelle, right of the posts with a moderate degree of difficulty. Wide on his own side. A bit after, he was practising at our Stade Marcel Deflandre and I couldn’t stop even though I’d pledged not to involve myself in some else’s goal-kicking mechanics.

So we paced out his steps. I suggested there were too many, increasing the scope for a mis-timed run up or approach. I cited Morgan Parra. He’s a machine off the tee and is essentially working off a three-step routine. The final step, the planting of the non-kicking foot is critical. The longer the run-up to that, the more chances of an error. I worked out towards the end of my career that, with adrenaline, the ball takes off like a projectile if the timing and the follow through are correct. Think the well-timed golf swing versus the fella trying to knock the white off the ball.

Ihaia was in the middle of practice and we counted back the steps, his versus mine. He was further back from the ball, considerably so in the context of capacity for something to go wrong.

The final kick in Bordeaux last Saturday was very similar in angle and distance to the miss against Castres. We were 15-13 down and the clock was in the red. Anyone who know anything in the crowd knew the demons that might have been in his head at that moment. It was so much more than a penalty for four league points. 

This was Heineken Cup final 2000 at Twickenham for me and the kicking meltdown I had against Northampton. You brush an issue like that under the carpet, it comes back and bites every single time. When you have an issue, you need to address it. Saturday was an important moment for Ihaia West, just as it was for Romain Sazy, who was making his 300th appearance for La Rochelle.

Bordeaux had use of the elements in the first half but we were 12-10 up and pinned back in the final moments before the interval, as they tried might and main to wrest the initiative back from us. We held out. I was pumped. Pumped for the defensive stand, the statement it made to ourselves and about ourselves. The half-time whistle blew and I was out there, exhorting and acclaiming my players. 

The Bordeaux head coach, Christophe Urios, the man who finds me unbearable, was neither in my eyeline or my thoughts. I retreated to my technical area on the sideline, he came over to seek me out. He might have been a bit agitated. The whys and wherefores will be played out at an LNR disciplinary hearing next Wednesday.

We are back at the Stade Chaban Delmas this Saturday for the Champions Cup. Different game, different competition, different criteria.

Getting pumped up is something that happens. At half-time, the coaches connect and consult in the staff dressing room before we go into players. In terms of things being combustible, it wasn’t heated territory at all. The episode on the sideline was a nothing event.

As was the nonsense about my comments regarding the England head coach job. What was the question asked by BT Sport? More pertinently why has it become a headline? Could I have more neutral in my answer? Yes England is a cracking job. Of course it’s a job you’d have to give serious contemplation to if it came about. 

The whys and whens of that are what makes the difference between fact and flamming by the media. How do you answer that question and not have it manipulated in whatever way it pleases the person writing it? "No I think it’s a terrible job. I am going to be in La Rochelle for the next 30 years because that’s all within my gift."

How bad, by the way, if that proposition presented itself sometime in the future. The club and the dressing room here in La Rochelle didn’t even get mildly aroused, much less vexed, by that tittle-tattle. That is noise out there in the ether, galaxies beyond the reality of the group and the training pitch. Our coach says England job is a good one. Great. What’s the plan for today?

That’s the Top 14 mentality. It is a ruthless, dog-eat-dog slog where you get thrown under the bus simply because you’re in the way. I’m also an overseas head coach and there aren’t too many of them about. I know my place and am appreciative of it.

There are days you drive home from this job wondering what have you got yourself into. There are other evenings when you feel it’s a five or six-year project. This summer there are players coming into the club that are my signings. They may hit the ground running, they may take 12 months to find their feet. The coaching eco-system is forever changing, players and dressing rooms are forever evolving. And stability is key.

That’s why the Munster situation is so difficult for the playing group. I can’t remember a single premature announcement of a coaching change or departure that was worked out well. The problem is there is no readymade solution. In a perfect world, Munster have identified their replacement early and he is available immediately. That almost never happens. Bad habits prosper in the vacuum created by a long goodbye. That’s hard to avoid. It's easier for players to think "this guy is on a short leash anyway’".

A lot of weeks have come and gone since Johann van Graan’s confirmation of a departure to Bath. Prospective replacements looking in can see potential problems or opportunities. But they need to believe that the long-standing culture so many were envious of is redeemable. With Munster, you would always believe that to be the case.

The difference between them and Leinster last Saturday night, though, was stark. Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster have brought a level of stimulation for players that is above what one could reasonably expect in any club set-up. They are four-deep in every position with talent on tap.

The coaches demand that the Leinster camp are every bit as competitive as the Irish camp. The edge is omnipresent. None of this "you have to step it up going into Irish camp". I reckon Lancaster is creating a scenario where players have to step it up when they come back to Leinster camp.

We will all be so much wiser this day week for the second legs of the Champions Cup last 16.

The Toulouse-Ulster tie may prove the best two-legger of this new format. Toulouse are at home Saturday and haven’t hit their stride yet as they feed back in their large, Grand Slam-winning French contingent. They played poorly in the Top 14 local derby at Castres last weekend but still left countless scoring opportunities behind them. They seldom get it wrong two weeks in a row. If Ulster are within 10 after the first leg, it makes it very juicy for Ravenhill.

*Whenever they found their apprehensive self in the trenches, former colleagues always said that the experience was more manageable when Tom Smith was alongside. A man who was the exemplar of the action over words fraternity. My deepest sympathies to his family.