‘Inside you would be disappointed that they didn’t’: Ronan O’Gara reveals Leinster never approached him about head coach vacancy

Ronan O’Gara has revealed that he was never approached with regard to the Leinster head coach position.

Although widely touted as a potential replacement for Leo Cullen when he steps down at the end of the current season, there was no contact from Leinster or the IRFU.

Instead, O’Gara recently signed a four-year contract extension with La Rochelle until 2031, a club with whom he has won two Champions Cups.

It wasn’t idle conjecture that the former Munster, Ireland and Lions outhalf could be in the running. IRFU performance director David Humphreys said as much at a media briefing during Ireland’s Nations Championship during the summer: “Of course, I would say he’ll (O’Gara) be a candidate for every job that comes up in Ireland.

“I met Rog two or three months ago when La Rochelle were in Belfast, and we talked about where his coaching ambitions were.”

However, a globe-trotting resumé that saw him coach at Racing 92 and win trophies at the Crusaders in New Zealand and La Rochelle didn’t merit a conversation or consideration. Not that he’s pining for what never occurred.

“No Leinster didn’t reach out and the competitor inside you would be disappointed that they didn’t because you think (why wouldn’t you at least have a chat).

“But like, for me, so many people are stuck in the past. Yes, as the rugby player for Munster, I didn’t like Leinster and Leinster didn’t like me. Let’s be honest here. We’re playing sport to win.

“I had 10 years of unbelievable days in the red jersey when we usually got the better of Leinster and the last four years, where Leinster took over. That’s as a player. That’s 2013 when I stopped playing.

“Then you try and build a completely different career. Some people in Ireland don’t understand that I am a professional coach that’s gone around the world to be as good as I can be. And the job that I’m doing here would speak quite highly of (my progress) without talking myself up; sometimes you must stand for something.”

During a wide-ranging interview which can be read in The Irish Times on Saturday the subject of brushes with officials and periodic suspensions also came up, ones which led to fines and cumulative bans of a couple of months in total. So, has he calmed down?

He smiled: “I don’t have that ‘rattiness’ I did as a player. A lot of it is to do with Canal (television station) because they give €5 million to every club so without Canal we don’t have a game. That’s the most important thing.

“It goes well for them too, having an Irishman that doesn’t speak French well, that voice is quite easily (identifiable). They’ve hidden mics in the soil in that zone but I’m not proclaiming any innocence here whatsoever. Some of them are without doubt deserved sanctions. Some of them aren’t.

“Like over a long period of time, there must be nearly 200 games, the (number) of infractions is quite small. Because sometimes you say, oh no, you couldn’t have him because he’s a hothead. You laugh at a comment like that.

“Some of these calls are just to keep your own sanity with the standard of officiating, sometimes it’s TMO-related, where you’re asking the fourth official have they checked that? Their response may absolutely trigger something incredulous where you’re like, did he actually say that?”