Ronan O’Gara tips Paulie to pass coaching test in Paris

Ronan O’Gara believes former Munster and Ireland team-mate Paul O’Connell is testing the water for a career in coaching with his first full-time job as a forwards coach at Stade Francais.

The French Top 14 campaign begins today with O’Connell’s new Parisian club away at Paddy Jackson’s newly-promoted Perpignan, the 38-year-old former Ireland skipper having joined head coach Heyneke Meyer and a backroom team also including fellow Munsterman Mike Prendergast as backs coach. In moving to France, O’Connell has followed O’Gara, who cut his coaching teeth across the capital at Racing 92 and is now a Super Rugby-winning assistant coach at the Crusaders in Christchurch, New Zealand.