DRAWN OUT OF THEIR ‘CHELLE

O’gara: Boys took persuading to buy into crazy dream

see what the bouclier (the Top 14 title) means. It’s a fantastic competition.

“It’s a marathon but they weren’t used to the Champions After scaling the European Cup. club rugby summit twice as a “They didn’t play that many player, O’gara did it again as a games in it up to 24 months ago head coach in Marseille on Saturday so it was something a bit new to with a 24-21 over Leinster. them and trying to create that

In his first season at La mindset.

Rochelle, the 45-year-old guided “The Top 14 was a marathon the club to a destination they but the Champions Cup could never really believed in before be a sprint. his arrival as assistant to Jono “Once you got a bit of a Gibbes in 2019. momentum they could see that

When he joined, he quickly yeah, this crazy Irishman knows assessed the situation. Beating what he is talking about and we Leinster to win a Champions could have a go at both.

Cup title wasn’t on the agenda. “But you go to win your home “No, way off,” said O’gara. games and your away games to But the deep relationship he win the Champions Cup and enjoyed with the

TRY, TRY AND

competition as Munster’s No.10, meant

TRY AGAIN..

he made it a priority to change that.

He worked on the staff and the players to come around to fighting on two fronts

– the Top 14 and the

Champions Cup.

“You could see it coming together. The boys were probably a bit shocked by how much I love the competition.

“It’s only when you go to France that you

RONAN O’GARA is the ‘crazy Irishman’ who has made La Rochelle live an impossible dream.

they were like, ‘coach, it’s not possible’.

“They got into it, really into it.” Last year, La Rochelle made it to the

Champions Cup final – beating Leinster in the semis

– and also the Top 14 final, but lost both.

Tough lessons were learned. “It was obviously really hard because it was Covid rugby and there was no public there,” he recalled of that Champions Cup final loss to Toulouse.

“But this is a monumental day for the club. It was all about winning, finding a way to bring that cup back to La Rochelle.”

Asked how it felt to win the crown as a head

coach having done so in his playing days, O’gara said: “My immediate reaction is that I am the coach, the boys have accepted me, they might have found me a bit strict and difficult at the start, demanding, repetition, but I’ve got a really great group. “I love going to the training ground, I love trying to stimulate them, I love trying to get the best out of them.

“It’s a group that just needed to be brought together a little bit and we needed to find the finishing line.

“That’s where the leaders became very important. They had enough of competing – they wanted to win.

“It’s a special day, a special story. It really is. I’m buzzing.

“I’m not showing it but I am very, very, very proud of them.”