After experiencing some remarkable success over the last couple of years, Ronan O'Gara and La Rochelle have found the going a bit tougher since the start of this season.
The French club found victories hard to come by in the opening weeks of the Top 14 season, winning only one out of their first six games. In Europe, they suffered losses in both of their opening Champions Cup pool fixtures.
Thankfully for their Irish coach, the team has bounced back well in recent times. They have won five of their last seven in domestic competition, while big wins over Leicester and Sale was enough to ensure that the defence of their European crown would continue.
La Rochelle now look well primed to compete for the biggest honours once again over the second half of the campaign.
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Ronan O'Gara 'offended' by La Rochelle player's Six Nations snub
Ronan O'Gara has an incredible amount of belief in his players, so much so that he is offended on their behalf when they are not rated quite as highly by those outside of the group.
With the Six Nations kicking off next week, many of his players have been called up to take part in the championship. However that will not be featuring is Antoine Hastoy, who did not make the France despite some injuries in the outhalf position.
Writing in his column in the Irish Examiner, Ronan O'Gara admitted that he was 'offended' that the player did not make the cut and asked the 26-year old to use it as fuel over the coming months.
Antoine Hastoy scored 20 points for us last Sunday in Sale. I think he may have had a point to prove after being excluded from the French 6N squad.
Maybe if Romain Ntamack had been around I could accept if not fully understand it but to be left out of a squad in the circumstances Antoine was the biggest look-in-the-mirror moment he will ever get.
We chatted, and not alone was he offended, I was offended. And the parting words didn’t even need to be ventilated: Now what are you going to do about it?
You can read the article in full here.
La Rochelle will continue to play Top 14 games while the Six Nations takes place, and while Ronan O'Gara will be glad to have Hastoy available for selection, his reaction to the player missing the France Six Nations squad sums up why he is so fondly thought of by the squad.
You get the sense that he will certainly be using the snub as a catalyst for improvement as his team enter the business end of the season.
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