'A great leader': Clare man Noel McNamara plotting Leinster downfall

Noel McNamara knows the Leinster players well. Now he's plotting how Bordeaux-Begles can defeat the Irish side in the Champions Cup final

Noel McNamara from O'Callaghan's Mills in Clare is the attack coach with Bordeaux-Begles who face Leinster in Saturday's Champions Cup final. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The Irish influence has never been limited to the provinces when it comes to the back end of the Champions Cup. It’s been over a decade since a final was played without someone from the island playing a part on one side of the white line or the other. Standing in Leinster’s way this time is a man well-known to them from O'Callaghan's Mills in Clare.

Now attack coach with Bordeaux-Begles, Noel McNamara has worked with the majority of the Leinster players through previous stints with the province and the Ireland schools and U20s. He was even Dan Sheehan’s maths teacher at Clongowes.

“He's been a fantastic coach,” said Sheehan. “I didn't have him as a coach in school but as a teacher you could get the vibe off him. He's a great leader who I respected in school, and through the 20s system he's been fantastic.

“A lot of lads look up to him and really enjoyed playing under him. He will obviously know us quite well, or a lot of the lads quite well. But that's just the way rugby's gone. It's gone very international.” 

McNamara landed in Bordeaux after a two-year stint with the Sharks in South Africa. Highly-respected during his time working in Ireland, his stock has rocketed on the back of his input at Bordeaux where fellow coaches and the players wax lyrical about him.

“I talk to Noel all the time and he's a brilliant fella,” said Leo Cullen. “It's a different coaching journey. I'm not sure many people have been on that specific journey that he's been, so it’s credit to him and his family.

“He was very kind to bring me and my son and father to his house for dinner. We were on a ‘recce’ to Bayonne [last November] and his family have obviously supported him massively through that adventure.

“He’s in the opposition camp this week and he will know a lot of our lads very, very well, so he understands this group well. We don't wish him well tomorrow but we’ve wished him well up to this point, if that makes sense.”

Bordeaux-Begles head coach Yannick Bru said his side have learned a lot about Leinster from Noel McNamara. Pic: ©INPHO/Nick Elliott

Attack coaches the world over would dearly love to work with the sort of players under McNamara’s care. Matthieu Jalibert and Maxime Lucu are world-class half-backs and Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey are the stars in a devastating backline collective.

The Irishman has managed to harness that wealth of talent even more effectively with a coaching philosophy honed at home in which players are given structure and, at the same time, the freedom to play as they see fit within that.

His boss Yannick Bru knows what he has.

“Noel worked with the Leinster men and we learned a lot from him. This week he was not different than the previous week. Noel has a lot of energy, he is a former teacher, so sometimes we have long meetings, we have to cancel the meetings!

“But he's full of energy, and maybe we felt in the last few days that the energy was bigger than usual because he has a lot of respect for the Leinster men.

“Destiny was special because when we landed in Bilbao airport [on Thursday], we met the Leinster who just landed [at the same time] with us. It was a signal from destiny for Noel.

“I saw him looking very nervous when we took the luggage, but it was good to have this week with him.”