Rory Best praises Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara’s coaching progress

Best has landed a role with Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby

Rory Best at the Specsavers Healthy Hearing Campaign launch. Pic: Inpho

The accents don’t exactly match but Paul O’Connell’s voice isn’t long in springing to mind when Rory Best starts to discuss his first tentative steps down a coaching pathway which he had declared out of bounds in last year’s autobiography.

O’Connell’s playing career ended with injury at the 2015 Rugby World Cup but it wasn’t until this January that he finally found a niche for himself as the man entrusted with the Ireland senior team’s pack.

The Munster man had previously spent time with the Ireland U20s and in Paris with Stade Francais before speaking openly and honestly about the difficulty in finding a role that gave him a balance between work and family.

Best is in that same place now.

Retired since Ireland’s 2019 World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand, he helped out with the Ulster ‘A’ side earlier this season but more or less ruled out the prospect of succeeding Kieran Campbell in the province’s vacant academy role yesterday.

Too hands on. Too big a leap for a man taking baby steps.

A role with Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby may seem like a big ask in that context but Best explained yesterday that his recently confirmed role will be more of a consultancy gig where he coaches the coaches from afar.

Just another toe in the water.

It’s a good fit in many ways. Adrian Balfour, one of the franchise’s part-owners, is from Enniskillen and his brother is a friend of Best. Former Ulster player and assistant coach Allen Clarke has made the switch from Dallas to the Seawolves as well.

“So it’s not straight-up coaching,” said Best who was speaking at Specsavers Audiology’s PRSI campaign. “I’m not there every single day. The press release almost made it sound like I was taking over as director of rugby, which is not the case.”

Best and O’Connell caught up last November when they shared a flight home from the England-Ireland Autumn Nations Cup game in Twickenham and the man from Craigavon seems to be following in the former lock’s slipstream for now. 

O’Connell signed for Toulon but never made the move due to injury six years ago. Best contemplated a switch to Bristol just to work with Pat Lam before deciding that the tank was empty and it was time to prioritise family.

“I was maybe a beaten docket at that stage and I left it alone but there are similarities. The big thing is trying to get the balance between wanting this free time, in that when you are playing you feel like you can’t wait for that, and as soon as you get it you want to be busy again and you want to be involved in rugby.

Paul looks to me like someone who has been trying to balance that and maybe has the right balance now… 

“It’s about experiencing different things and seeing can you get the stuff in your head out of your mouth so that someone else can learn from it and it doesn’t matter what environment you do that in. Some can and some can’t.”

Best and O’Connell were Irish captains in their day. One ran the scrum and the other the lineout but the former Ulster hooker feels that out-halves have a head start when it comes to coaching given the responsibility they have in pulling all the strings.

Exhibit A would be Ronan O’Gara.

Best’s last game as a player was with the Barbarians in November of 2019. He shared a room with Bryn Hall that week and the Auckland man waxed lyrical about O’Gara who was assistant to Scott Robertson at Crusaders at the time. 

“He’s ultimately very loyal,” said Best. “Once you get into his inner circle, if you like, he’s very honest and upfront. He is a people person once you get past that façade he puts up. When I first broke into the Irish squad, I probably didn’t find him that engaging.

“Whenever he gets to know you...then he starts to realise your value, he really does open up.

“I would count him as one of my good friends in rugby. That’s what people love about him.”