Prendergast: Stade ‘perfect fit’ for Paulie

By John Fallon in Paris

Paul O’Connell arrived in Paris last night to begin his coaching career with Stade Francais.

And he will get little time to settle. The squad leave tomorrow for a mini-camp in La Rochelle, which will culminate, on Friday, with a pre-season friendly against their Top 14 rivals, who are now coached by Jono Gibbes.

That clash, with La Rochelle, will be Stade’s final pre-season game — they went down 38-26 to Toulon last Friday evening — before they open their Top 14 campaign, away to Paddy Jackson’s Perpignan on August 25.

O’Connell will link up with long-time friend and former Young Munster and Munster teammate, Mike Prendergast, as part of a new coaching ticket assembled by Heyneke Meyer at Stade Francais.

Meyer, the former Springboks coach, has been brought in by Hans-Peter Wild, the Swiss billionaire owner of Capri Sun, who bought Stade Francais in May, 2017 and embarked on a three-year project. He expects to see them crowned French champions.

Stade Francais are the second-most successful side in France, having picked up their 14th Top 14 crown in 2015, with only Toulouse, with 19 Bouclier de Brennus titles, ahead of them in the roll of honour.

Backs coach Prendergast, who was recruited from relegated Oyonnax, having previously worked with Bernard Jackman, at Grenoble, played a key role in O’Connell moving to Paris.

“Initially, Heyneke was looking for a lineout coach, perhaps someone to come in on a consultancy basis. I would be in regular contact with Paul and mentioned it to him.

“It’s all quite recent. He had just come back from France, from the U20 World Cup, and it just evolved from there and he came out to Paris last week and the deal was done.

“It’s a perfect fit for the club and it’s a perfect fit for Paul. He has dipped his toes in coaching with the Munster academy and then the Irish U20s, and he felt the time was right to give this a go full-time.

“In a way, it was sort of now-or-never. A year down the line, he’d be another season out of rugby, so the timing of this is good and Stade is delighted he has come on board to complete the coaching ticket,” said Prendergast. That coaching ticket also includes former the South African native, French international, Pieter de Villiers, who won five Top 14 crowns with Stade, and John McFarland, the former Springboks defence coach, who has also worked closely with Meyer.

O’Connell told RTÉ Radio, at the weekend, that this was an opportunity he might regret later in life, if he didn’t take it, not least as his proposed move as a player to Toulon was scuppered by injury.

His wife, Emily, and three young children will move with him to Paris and learning to speak French as quickly as possible is a priority.

“I have no doubt he will put huge effort into that,” added Prendergast. “He had started working on the language, ahead of his move to Toulon, and it was noticeable when he was here, last week, that he could hold some conversations in French.

“The coaching staff speak English and so do a lot of the players, but we coach in French, here in France, so it’s important to get a grasp of the language and get your message across.

“But there are structures in place to help foreign players and coaches and I’ve no doubt Paul will get a grasp of it quickly.

“It’s an exciting time for the club. There has been a lot of change and I’m looking forward to working with him,” added the former Munster scrum-half.