Ronan O'Gara exclusive: Munster love remains but that doesn't mean I'll ever coach there
ALWAYS RED: The greatest days of my rugby life were in that Munster top but I’m not interested in the Munster head coach role. Not now and hardly in the future.
It's all relative, not red. We, as in La Rochelle, got nilled by Montpellier in a mudbath last Saturday. My players say they don’t dig cranky Rog. Nor do I. We have injuries mounting and November internationals to contend with, but we don’t go there, because the excuse is the first refuge of the weak.
Nevertheless there are grind periods, with gruel as the sole ingredient. After Saturday night against Stade Francais, we get two weeks of a break. It’s sorely needed. My contract in La Rochelle runs to the end of the 2027 campaign and that feels like the moon from here. So where are we going and not going? The best way we can get better is create a culture where our internationals are not the cornerstones of the team. So the coach has to give others the opportunity to stake a claim, a real opportunity. And if they take that opportunity, the hard decision arises whether to perhaps leave the internationals out for big games down the road. Otherwise, you are a bluffer, basing everything on reputation. I can see how squad players here could be frustrated because they feel they haven’t got enough of a chance. I am loyal to guys who have won European Cups but even Real Madrid need to be re-infused with fresh blood from time to time. We have a couple of talents coming through the door next season. I’m looking at my watch. But in the meantime, we have a Bouclier to challenge for.
Munster fans can relate to the difference a fully fit squad can make. Because when a squad is ravaged, then competition for places is virtually non-existent. Then one wonders are they fatigued of my voice after three years at the helm? It’s a problem for every coach. Freshness. We have to make it an honest column, and the feedback I get from this group is that spreading fear doesn’t work. ‘Spraying’ them, as they call it. You look to create an elite culture of consistent behaviour. But some will see that as being over-demanding and spreading anxiety. A fella catching a ball has already knocked it on cos he’s thinking of a bollocking from the coach. An arm around the shoulder might be better. That’s on me.
I have a whiteboard note in the meeting room on elite behaviour and culture. There’s a series of socioeconomic stats that are pin-balling around my head. In France, 32% of the population earn between €2,000 and €3,000 a month, 11.5% earn between €3,000 and €4,000 a month. Those earning over €8,000 a month represent a mere 1.8% of the population. If you operate in that stratospheric environment, you are expecting and demanding really high standards. Folk can’t have it every way.
We’ve been on the go 10 weeks in a row. This two-week break for internationals is invaluable. Everyone is cranky and knackered, and though you endeavour to summon your Crusader glass half-full mentality, it’s proving elusive.
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Four of our five kids are now placed in second-level schooling in La Rochelle. This is where our medium-term future lies, in both a professional and family respect. So when I say I was very interested to learn of the management developments in Munster this week, it is only on the basis I know some of the guys on the staff there. These are turbulent times, but the solution for their next head coach is already in the building with a combo of Mike Prendergast and Denis Leamy. Plus there is a possible add of someone else with gravitas and judgement, an elder lemon.
Prendy has been on the road for 11 years, cultivating his rugby knowledge around France to get it to a level commensurate with the duties and role of a head coach. He knows rugby inside out, he knows Munster inside out, that’s why it works. Some will be of the misconception that he would not be strong enough or is not blockbuster enough to be a numero uno. Believe me he is more than strong enough to be the boss. Where I would potentially see a third person is as a sounding board with Leamy and himself. But Prendy as the director of rugby. Munster will be better if Leamy and Prendergast are given more control. Felix Jones has been mentioned but is less experienced than Prendergast.
Logic, never mind history, tells us that most good No.1s start as No.2s or 3s. Rarely do they become good No.1s direct from their playing days. There are stepping stones for everyone.
Of course, the Munster elephant in the room is that the current instability has very little to do with who’s coaching the team. There are financial and environmental issues that pre-date Graham Rowntree’s time, and when you wash in some inter-personal stuff into that mix, it all has the feel of disarray. In purely economic terms, a fact not lost on the departing head coach, Munster and Leinster has the feel (if not quite the look) of Cardiff City against Manchester City.
The biggest loss, though, has been the weakening Munster genetic. There are plenty of real Munster people still engaged and passionate about rugby in the province — Quinny, Donal Lenihan, Donnacha O’Callaghan have gone the media route and that’s fine by me; I’m writing this column. The paranoia inside Munster Rugby around these guys getting stuck into the executive is obliterating the core message from each — these guys really care about Munster Rugby. They want the best. They speak from the heart with a hurt.
There are many others, too many to mention in Limerick, who are desperate to see their province thriving again. They can't contribute unless they are asked. Is the solution to this a meeting of the best minds in the province?
Whether you are in Auckland or Samoa, Mallow or Belfast, it’s really sad to see what’s going in with Munster. We all reach back into our past for succour, when things felt better because maybe they were. Where are ye now Garrett, Geraghty, and Holl?
However, I really believe there is a massive upside to all this and a window of renewal. If you got the right people in the room — people who care, with the financial clout and the appropriate passion — it would soon be evident that the care for Munster hasn’t diminished in any way. But they need a plan. A vision. A dream.
Sometimes, the vision can come from the head coach but it must be aligned with the board room too. I don’t see that at the moment. Munster is different to the norm because loyalists play for the jersey, and revere the jersey. Cork and Limerick divisions are unhealthy.
The news on Graham’s departure shocked me. I didn’t expect that. There is a human side to it. I’m not sure how aligned Rowntree and his staff were. Only the people in the building know what’s going on. We on the outside don’t have a clue, really.
The greatest days of my rugby life were in that Munster top but I’m not interested in the Munster head coach role. Not now and hardly in the future. For starters I am contracted to La Rochelle until 2027, the competitor in me demands that I try and win a Bouclier here and another Champions Cup with it. And I feel I have a better chance of doing that with La Rochelle than with Munster. Anyone who would suggest that taking Munster now at a low ebb is a smart play doesn’t know Munster, doesn’t know me and does both a disservice. Why would you take over any job? Because you think you could do better. The game of life is you against you, not anyone else. Munster is in my heart but not my head now. Besides, I would hope my next coaching move is into the Test arena.
It’s a great job still. It’s Munster. It’s on its knees at the minute, but a good plan and vision is the foundation stone for a revived future. If the organisation went out there with a vision for Munster rugby, you could get some very interesting people in the room. With deep pockets. This demands a root and branch reappraisal. If you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. And it goes back a while. This rot hasn’t begun with Rowntree.
Don’t underestimate Prendy and Leamy. No one should get fixated on titles. Just get the right people. The high point of Rowntree’s tenure was the URC title but when you take away the silverware and the medals, how will his time be remembered? When you consider what it was like when he was handed the reins, he did a job and then some getting them over the line to win the URC. That is the revised benchmark for Munster now. The last time they won in Europe was 2008, so the Murrays, the O’Mahonys et al have operated in a culture where the URC is the biggest thing that has happened for them in a red jersey. Will they feel that’s enough?
La Rochelle have Stade Francais in town Saturday night. If we win, we are six out of nine in the Top 14. The quality hasn’t been great, there’s a whiff of a crisis around the place, but we lie fourth, joint third if you want to be kind.
There are worse crises going on.
