Life after Joe: Ronan O’Gara sees nobody out there like Schmidt
“I don’t think there’s another Joe out there,” says Ronan O’Gara, when guided toward the topic of life after Joe Schmidt.
The IRFU and some of its biggest names have preached the gospel of the collective; the idea that no one person is indispensable, and O’Gara has some time for the theory.
He praised the impact of David Nucifora, the IRFU’s Performance Director, who has helped Ireland to levels of unprecedented squad depth and talent in recent years, as well as taking some tough decisions — and encouraging them — along the way.
O’Gara is clearly a big fan of Andy Farrell, the Ireland defence coach — and one of his rugby league heroes — as well as Simon Easterby, Greg Feek, and there was special mention for Stuart Lancaster’s impact at Leinster, too.
But having great supporting acts are crucial but what worth are they without the headliner? For many, including O’Gara, Schmidt is the star man on Ireland’s stage.
“What I find when I am out [of Ireland] is it doesn’t matter where you are from — get the best people and players will be inspired to perform, like they have under Joe,” O’Gara said, “But I don’t think there is another Joe out there.
“We haven’t seen that in the past in Ireland have we? Our team won a Grand Slam and we were competitive but Joe... ‘maximisation’ is a great word.
“You don’t know if [the current team] will ever stop or will they keep going and going and going and going. They believe they can do it.
“They believe because Schmidt has them believing. They believe because he believes. Ireland’s success under the Kiwi is unprecedented, and it’s not even close. It’s not only results that have changed though, it’s how others see us.
“We have to acknowledge the job he has done — we are respected around the world, and rightly so as they are consistently producing,” O’Gara said. “James Ryan and Jordan Larmour expect to win silverware. It wasn’t that way 10 years ago.
“It’s great for the 15 year-olds in this country to see it as the norm to be winning World Cups, why should we be thinking that getting out of the group is a good thing or getting to a semi-final is a good thing?
“Once the mindset is changed, which this team is doing, it makes it so much easier for the people passing after them.”
Johnny Sexton last week claimed that Ireland’s players will, along with the new coach, drive the culture and standards when Schmidt eventually departs.
There will be new faces from below to help, but O’Gara is keen to praise the supports above and around the senior team.
“I would put on record how impressive Joe has been but the whole show — Nucifora, for the first three or four years, there wasn’t a mention of him but now people see it’s his strategies and thought processes, somebody has to have a plan,” O’Gara said.
“It can’t be just the IRFU. Someone must be leading those meetings and giving them direction. We are quick to knock the English but look at the job [Stuart] Lancaster is doing at Leinster, look at Andy Farrell with Ireland. They are quality coaches.”
It’s one of rugby’s greatest tales — the two England coaches down in the dumps after a home World Cup, raised to the top of the world by the plucky Irish.
Farrell has become a cult hero after his work helping Ireland beat New Zealand and South Africa and Australia on foreign soil. Lancaster? Barely a week passes without his name being linked to an English club — clubs who would not touch him before his part in Leinster’s great rebirth.
Two good coaches, good enough to lead Ireland after Schmidt?
“You’re going to need Irish people with them, it’s very important that there are Irish people there,” he said.
“But at the same time you can’t have any tokens in what represents everything about Irish rugby. You have got to earn that job.
“There’s no one that understands us better than ourselves, we get what being Irish is. At the same time, if these guys have the expertise, they have the expertise. You just have to make sure the Irish coaches are upskilled so that they can get to that level.”
Simon Easterby, Leo Cullen, John Fogarty, Jerry Flannery, Felix Jones, Nigel Carolan, and Jared Payne are the home-based talent on offer, while O’Gara, Girvan Dempsey, John Muldoon, and Bernard Jackman are others pushing forward at relative levels overseas.
But Farrell, with one foot already in the coaching box, could be the surprise man to lead the country after Schmidt’s departure.
“When you just meet [Farrell] you know you’re dealing with a competitor here, I think he gets it with players, he just has that vibe,” O’Gara said. “They probably go on about it being Joe’s way or no way, but I’d be certain with Andy Farrell he wouldn’t back down easily, which I think is very important. If he has a key message to deliver he’s delivering his message, that’s what players want, they want clarity, they want direction.”
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