Ronan O'Gara: Bitterness might come easy to Joey Carbery this week
GO TIME: Joey Carbery of Munster before the Heineken Champions Cup Pool B Round 3 match between Munster and Northampton Saints. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
JONNO GIBBES was let go by Clermont Auvergne this week. He is a good coach, but a better person. He was especially good to me when I came back from New Zealand to La Rochelle. He let me grow as his assistant to the point where Clermont spotted an opportunity and targeted him. It seemed a lovely fit all round. But things haven’t gone to plan and Jonno is out, not without looking into the rearview mirror and seeing the project he has left and worked hard to win a first European Champions Cup.
That is the brutality of professional sport. I put myself in that situation and I feel a sense of bitter envy. It’s a human emotion. The players that left La Rochelle at the beginning of last season might not have enjoyed watching us winning in Marseille last May either. Quite a few of them were probably roaring for Leinster. That’s a fact of professional sport and the human condition. Some of those lads were removed by me. It’s the business of sport. You can’t keep everyone. Pierre Boudehent is off to Stade Francais next season; he fancies that project, there’s a good deal on the table, that is his decision. Jonno Gibbes didn’t have that luxury.
Unlimited access. Half the price.
