Four years after taking up a coaching role with Racing 92, the French Top 14 club has this morning confirmed that Ronan O'Gara is set for a move to New Zealand.
While mutterings of a potential departure from the French capital had begun to emerge in recent weeks, O'Gara will now take up a new role with Crusaders in New Zealand on January 1st.
Throughout his time in France, O'Gara's stock as a coach rose considerably. Becoming the club's defence coach after an initial promotion, the former Munster man will now act as the assistant coach to Crusaders' Scott Robertson.
In their official statement this morning, Racing revealed that despite O'Gara's contractual obligations, the club,
did not want to deprive one of its loyal servants of a great development opportunity.
During his time in France, O'Gara was part of a Racing set up that saw the club claim the Top 14 in 2016; the first French Championship the club won as Racing 92.
Building a very impressive CV since retiring from playing duty in 2013, this latest venture will see O'Gara's stock continue to rise as he seeks to extend his rugby education further still.
With the New Zealand club, O'Gara will also have the opportunity of working with such high profile players as Luke Romano, Sam Whitelock, Kieran Read, Ryan Crotty and Israel Dagg.
It promises to be an exciting move for O'Gara and Irish fans will be watching on eagerly to see how he gets on. Someone of his pedigree getting coaching experience like this in the Southern Hemisphere can only be good for him should the IRFU look to bring him back into the domestic fold in the future.
Some Crusaders fans, seemingly unaware of O'Gara despite having 128 international caps to his name, are not as excited about the move as we are, even question his supposed "bad attitude"
Has he? When was this? I had never heard of him, so won't know whether he's any good as a coach.
— C_NZ_ (@C_NZ_) November 22, 2017
Hmm.
