Will Skelton: Little details have turned legend Ronan O'Gara into top coach

O’Gara, the giant lock believes, is someone he is willing to bulldoze through teams for, and just as he did against Leinster in the semi-final, he is ready to it again

‘You don’t want to go out there with any regrets and this is basically the last game of the European calendar for us so we want to let loose and hopefully come away with the result,’ says La Rochelle’s Australian lock Will Skelton ahead of Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup final against Toulouse. Picture: Xavier Leoty / AFP

Will Skelton had enough faith in Ronan O’Gara the player to put the former Munster fly-half in a Rugby 08 PlayStation team and the Australian is just as impressed with O’Gara the head coach as La Rochelle prepare to face Toulouse in Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup final.

Skelton is no stranger to big games and has worked with enough good management teams in his time with the Waratahs, Wallabies and Saracens to spot coaching talent when he sees it.

O’Gara, the giant lock believes, is one such talent he is willing to bulldoze through teams for, and just as he did against Leinster in the semi-final, he is ready to it again against Toulouse at Twickenham when La Rochelle go into their first European final.

“Me and the boys, we’ve got the old Rugby 08 up on the PS2 in the team room and we often play off Ireland and put Rog on the pitch, with his 95 or 99 rating or something,” Skelton said, laughing.

“Yeah, I’ve known of Rog, he’s a legend of the game. I didn’t know how he’d go as a coach though, because it doesn’t always transfer being a great player to a great coach, but for me, he’s been awesome. He’s been someone who has helped on the side of playing to your strengths.

“Having a coach like that, he’s never been down on me or never comes down hard on the boys. It’s the little stuff, I remember one of our first games against Toulouse and he ripped into me and Lopeti Timani and it was a wake-up call that I’d probably been saying in my head.

But then to hear it from one of the head honchos, him and Jono, was an eye-opener and that’s the best type of coach, he’s direct, he’s straight and I enjoy it.

“I think him and (director of rugby) Jono Gibbes have been great with the direction in how we want to play, they haven’t pigeon-holed us into a specific style but let us play to our strengths.

“Ronan and Jono facilitate that at training and it’s showing on the field.”

It certainly showed in that semi-final on home turf at Stade Marcel Deflandre three weeks ago when La Rochelle defeated the four-time champions on the back of excellent game management from their New Zealand-born half-backs Tawera Kerr Barlow and Ihaia West, the Keep Ball Alive mentality that courses through the whole side and the power of forwards such as Skelton, the 140kg man-mountain who in 2019 ran roughshod over and through both Munster in the semi and Leinster in the decider as a Saracens player and repeated the trick earlier this month against Leo Cullen’s side.

“We wanted to come out fighting,” Skelton said of La Rochelle’s intent for the semi-final, “we wanted to be physical but also show a good blend of not only attack game but our kicking game and we weathered the storm there at the start and I thought once we got our discipline under wraps, we were able to showcase what tools have in our toolbox.

“It doesn’t change (for Toulouse). You don’t want to go out there with any regrets and this is basically the last game of the European calendar for us so we want to let loose and hopefully come away with the result.

“They’ve beaten us three times this season, that first game we were nowhere near where we wanted to be at Toulouse and then they came at the start of the year and beat us, which was devastating, but hopefully that gives us underdog status and we can just plough away with our work during the week and come ready on Saturday.”

Skelton, 29, admits his French is not up to the standard that he can pass on his experience with oratory so he prefers to do it through his game and work ethic.

Probably not my words or what I say to the boys, but through my actions, how I play, how I train, that’s the massive thing for me, that I’ve sort of put into my week.

“My French is not great too, so it doesn’t translate well but I guess that’s just my preparation and how I conduct myself during the week, just to show the boys that I’m ready.”

He is showing remarkable consistency in his form this season and though he puts that down to luck, he is also a beneficiary of La Rochelle’s gameplan.

“I’m probably just lucky. When you have some good players around you it’s being able to just express myself.

“Preparation hasn’t changed, my mentality hasn’t really changed. I think the team has helped a lot with how we play and probably the style of play here at La Rochelle is different to what it was at Sarries, so prioritising the power players and me being one of them, I get my hands on the ball a bit more.”

If he gets on the ball as much as he did against Leinster, then Toulouse could in for a long, hard, day at the office on Saturday.