Ronan O'Gara: Head down, ass up, digging deep to the end of the year

The more you dig, the more you get covered in shit, they say. But this is our hole, and we’ll figure a way out. There’s a crew in this together and we’ve been here before. We know the way out.

HIGHS AND LOWS: La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara consoles Leinster counterpart Stuart Lancaster after the Champions Cup final. Less than a month later, it was O'Gara's turn to suffer in a dramatic Top 14 decider against Toulouse, who they face again this weekend. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

THE trouble with being asked to write end-of-year helicopter assessments is I don’t surface often for air. Maybe to order coffee, but seldom otherwise. The range of my worldview is limited. There’s a segment in the Weekend Examiner that my wife enjoys, and I steal a peek at, called ‘This Much I Know’. That’s about the scope in terms of straying outside my lane.

On Saturday night, La Rochelle entertain Toulouse in the Top 14. We have lost six of our ten games in the domestic calendar and outside our bubble, they may be sharpening their crayons. If we lose a third game in a row in Europe next month, our interest in the Champions Cup that we’ve held tight for the past two years will be as dead as a dodo.