Tomas O’Leary among a crop of Munster friends to take the coaching path

Tomas O'Leary, former Ireland and Munster player, head of junior rugby and teacher at Christians Brothers College, Cork.

As a member of two Heineken Cup-winning squads in a professional rugby playing career spanning 12 seasons, former Munster and Ireland scrum-half Tomas O’Leary played with the cream of Irish rugby talent and for some of the best coaches in the sport.

It is no surprise to the Corkman that so many of his former team-mates are now elite-level professional coaches and he is grateful to have them among an expertly curated network of sounding boards as he continues his own path as a schools rugby coach at CBC.

“You look at my era of Munster player, Leams (Denis Leamy) is back in now, I played with Prendy (Mike Prendergast), Mossy (Lawler), Felix Jones, two World Cup-winning medals already as a coach, what Rog (Ronan O’Gara) has done, Fla (Jerry Flannery) is over in Harlequins and obviously Axel went into coaching.

“There’s a lot of boys who have gone into coaching and have been very successful off the back of it. That speaks to the culture of that Munster team and the growth mindset that was within that team. That’s the one thing you try and instill in your players, having that growth mindset, not being afraid to make that pass or make that mistake.

“I think in Ireland to be a coach you have to be willing to learn, willing to make mistakes, willing to learn on the job. That’s what it’s about, the same as any career but you can be particularly exposed when you’re a coach because people look at the end result.

“People were calling for Andy Farrell’s head in his early days, pretty quickly. It’s a process and an evolution when you’re a coach, so chatting to any of those boys and what they’re doing at Munster in particular, they seem to be really enjoying it. You can see the value of Leams going away, Rog going away to Crusaders, to France, being exposed to different environments, I think it’s fantastic. It’s brilliant to see all the lads doing well in their own careers, particularly in coaching.

“And I suppose my playing experience is similar. With London Irish you had Brian Smith and other coaches there; in Montpellier with Jake White as the head coach you had the French and the South African cultures, learning a new language; going up to Clongowes and how they do things up there in Leinster Schools rugby.

“Being exposed to those different environments I think is key in your own personal development so I suppose it’s ironic I’ve ended up in my alma mater. But I like to think those different environments inform my coaching.”