O’Gara’s former Munster and Ireland teammate reacts furiously to his latest England comments
After former Ireland fly-half and current La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara made some interesting comments yesterday suggesting he is interested in coaching England, his former Munster and Ireland teammate Alan Quinlan has fired back and said “you just don’t go there and that’s it.”
O’Gara was a guest on BT Sport yesterday when he was asked if he would be interested in coaching England, who are in the process of recruiting Eddie Jones’ successor after the 2023 World Cup, and gave a response that almost every Irish fan did not want to hear.
“Yeah, it would be a great job I think actually. Yeah, what a team. There’s so much potential there,” the 130-cap great said.
“There’s serious rugby players and serious passion for the game in England. It’s a cracking job, you’d love to have a go off that.”
Would Ronan O’Gara fancy coaching England? 🤔
“Yeah, it would be a great job. What a team.”#RugbyTonight pic.twitter.com/XpedpHOfZU
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) April 3, 2022
Well Quinlan joined Off the Ball on Monday and compared this to comments made by former Manchester United and Ireland midfielder Roy Keane about his former teammate Mark Hughes. After Hughes was named manager of Manchester City over a decade ago, Quinlan quoted Keane saying “you just don’t go there and that’s it.”
O’Gara has emerged as one of the leading coaches in Europe over the past few years, helping guide La Rochelle to the Heineken Champions Cup and Top 14 finals last year. The thought of an Irishman coaching England obviously would not sit well with many Ireland fans, even though their current team is coached by an Englishman, Andy Farrell, with a fellow England international, Mike Catt, part of his coaching staff.
This would be a bridge too far in Quinlan’s eyes though, even though O’Gara was not linked with the job before those comments. RFU boss Ian Ritchie has pointed out that he wants Jones’ successor to be English, which will be music to the ears of Quinlan and his compatriots.
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