'He knows when to put it on us, to switch and give us a hug' - Skelton lauds O'Gara's know-how

Will Skelton credits Ronan O'Gara with turning the page and putting together a new menu.

Wed, 26 Apr, 2023 - 06:35

Brendan O'Brien

Jake White made it clear at the end of last year that his Bulls side couldn’t hope to mix it with the biggest and best Europeans teams in the latter stages of the Heineken Champions Cup.

Mere months later and here we are with no South African sides in the last four.

One-off, or start of a trend? We’ll have to hold tight a few seasons more and see but there is the clear sense of the cream separating itself from the rest in the form of a semi-final line-up this weekend that boasts four of the winners from the last five years.

Sport is awash with similar examples of the strong seemingly getting stronger as finances and costs spiral but claiming back-to-back titles in this competition has been beyond anyone since Toulon and Saracens carved the thing up between them a while back.

If La Rochelle manage it next month they will be the first in six years to do so and it would be another feather in the cap for Ronan O’Gara who earlier in the season detailed the unique challenges that come with trying to build on success in these pages.

The former Munster and Ireland out-half found himself wondering about the squad's appetite for more medals on the long bus journey home after a beating in Bayonne last October but Will Skelton credits him with turning the page and putting together a new menu.

“This year, because every season you have a new group, he’s tried to put that win in Marseille away and not reflect on it too much,” said the Australian lock. “If we keep looking back on last year we won’t see what we can do this season and next season.

“It was a totally different group he had, different personalities, and I think the way he adapted was great. He knows when to put it on us, to switch and give us a hug. That’s what we’ve needed. In terms of coaching, he’s been great.

“His detail is spot on, he’s got some great support coaches as well. He’s emotional but tries to take the emotion away from us, so we can just be free on the field and not bubble over. He tries to take that away in the week and so we can express ourselves on the weekend.”

Nothing is won in April, even with the chopping and changing seasons between club and country, but La Rochelle’s response to their first major trophy has put them in a near-perfect position to prompt another mass celebration down by the old port.

Five other Top 14 clubs have bigger budgets than them this term but they sit second, and just one point, behind Toulouse in the table and Exeter Chiefs enter the lion’s den that is the Stade Marcel-Deflandre for Sunday’s semi-final.

Toulouse have long mastered the combination of art and science that is the business of competing at the sharp end both at home and abroad. Now La Rochelle have reached three finals across the two competitions in the last two years.

Skelton was hardly someone who needed much persuading when it came to Europe’s attractions. A winner with Saracens in 2019, he already had plenty of history with the tournament - and with their English opponents this weekend.

But he knows La Rochelle’s attachment to this scene isn’t accidental: that his boss’s background with Munster has played a huge part in them eschewing the laissez-faire approach of so many French clubs and going gung-ho for the glory.

“Of course. He says it all the time, that he has a lot more experience in this comp than us. He’s won comps, lost comps. He knows, especially when we play guys in the URC now, that when they play in Europe it is their World Cup.

“You don’t put everything into the URC as Europe is the pinnacle for the Irish and Welsh teams. We try to put that emphasis during the week so that we’re ready and up for it, which is a bit different for the French where the Top 14 is the big cup you want to win. He’s definitely changed that in the club.”