O’Gara could play bigger part

Future Racing Metro coach Laurent Labit refused to be drawn on whether they will issue Ronan O’Gara with a squad number for next season.

Labit and his co coach Laurent Travers signed O’Gara on a two-year contract. At Toulouse this season, with Guy Noves’s side struggling on the injury front, forwards coach and retired French rugby legend William Servat was called into action in October. He has played 15 times since helping Toulouse into tonight’s Top 14 semi-final against Toulon.

When asked if Racing will be applying for a playing license for O’Gara, like Toulouse had done with Servat, Labit refused to answer directly, but replied ambiguously with a smile: “It’s the fashion.”

Labit did say that O’Gara’s input can help them to solve one of the biggest problems in the French game: Kicking.

“We have a big deficiency in French rugby and it starts with the young players. Ronan is experienced, he has very good vision of drop-kicks, returning kicks, up-and-unders… He finished the season really well; it’s difficult to do better in this area.”

The addition of the Munster and Ireland star is exactly what the head coaching duo were hoping club president Jacky Lorenzetti would come up with. Labit says they wanted “an additional person who could participate in certain exercises and particularly to take charge of everything related to kicking, with both the professionals and especially the academy players”.