How did he do it? Because that first line might need rewritingâŚ
Jesus! 
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This is like a different sport. Shows their isnât much depth in new Zealand nowadays when a nobody like Freddy burns is getting a start.
No arms tackle in that too. Yellow card.
Tis. A no tackling version of rubby
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Could anyone paste that up please?
No better man to piss on a power keg. He must be very near the KK border
Carlow people are all but Kilkenny really.
ITâS Thursday now. The tremendous happiness I felt waking up on Monday is still there, so it must be authentic. There have been beers and barbecues, parades and passionate celebration. I so admire what the lads did last Saturday in Dublin. 17-0 down, 23-7 down, the composure, the rugby, the balls to dig that out. I like that a lot.
That is a team getting better in front of our eyes. Two years ago, La Rochelle wouldnât have been able for that. Whatever of themes and messages, we are enjoying it and doing this together. We have a real team spirit now.
Ten years of coaching learnings later, itâs gratifying to proudly watch back a performance Iâd sign up to seven days a week. My wife has felt obligated to remind me on occasions this week that Iâm 46. That has its advantages too. You appreciate the stuff a player doesnât. Now their names are engraved on the trophy, in rugby chapters and books, in its history. Thatâs it. How simple it is. No matter what happens for the rest of their lives, itâs Romain Sazy, European Cup winner. May 2023.
Thatâs as real as it gets. And itâs forever.
**
On Wednesday night, we had the European champions in our back yard. It felt more like a barbecue with friends. The players had threatened this after the final. Weâll sort. You wonât have to lift a finger. They were almost as good as their word. As always. I was only trusted with running to the local Cash and Carry for ketchup, mustard and mayo. They did the heavy lifting. As always. Chipped in to buy and deliver one of those massive Argentinian barbecues they have for assados. Six metres broad and long.
Joel Sclavi â who else? - and Paul Boudehent put on the aprons. Six kegs of beer. All the buns, burgers and dogs, pork ribs and chicken you could shake a stick at. The boys took over.
Then there was a moment between courses I knew it was time to pull the wagon off their road.
There are sober thoughts. My head is still there, in that first 15 minutes at the Aviva. I broke the golden coaching rule of staying in the moment. At 17-0, I was already into half-time talk mode, about salvaging pride in the second period. Regaining respect. If they scored a fourth try, it was 24-0. Thirty-one wouldnât be long after.
Dan Sheehan is a fantastic rugby player. Blindingly quick for a hooker. We were caught cold with the first try off a lineout and by the time Sheehan is grabbing his second and Leinsterâs third try in the corner, weâve Tawera Kerr-Barlow in the bin. It was a 12-minute cycle in a fast-spinning tumble dryer. My mouth was dry. My face flushed. It felt like a good time to be rattled.
Itâs well advertised how Leinster make hay when the opposition has a player in the bench. All that and more made Jonathan Dantyâs try on 18 minutes the game-changer. That was our full-back, Brice Dulin, at nine for that try. That was a huge, huge, seven points. The critical exchange I had in the half-time tunnel was not with Sean OâBrien or Johnny Sexton. It came from our assistant coach, Sebastien Boboul, who was as energised as I was by the 23-14 score. Result. We were eight down in Marseille last year, he said. I knew it was something to work into the message.
TIES THAT BIND: Ronan OâGara is reunited with his former Munster teammate Federico Pucciariello at the Aviva Stadium. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Iâll be forever grateful and empowered for the experiences with the Crusaders in Christchurch, for giving me the understanding of being composed and relaxed, and how important it is. Thereâs something of an Irish default setting in me that feels like a wound-up clock. Nervous edginess, uptight jitteriness, blaming the referee, and everything else for our issues. Internalising things, no time for fun and joking. Itâs combustible and itâs the wrong way to go about things.
I love the words âcareâ and âconnectâ. I donât even think there is a direct and accurate French translation for those feelings but there is a basic fundamental there. Consistent behaviours create a proper culture. If you are a langer to them on Monday, they wonât forget by Saturday. You have to be consistent. Be a langer all the time if you want to. Itâs better than an emotional Jekyll and Hyde.
The Radisson St Helen in Dublin was a good call as a pre-match base. Beyond everything, it has a great team room facility that facilitates good chats. Itâs important in the last 24 hours before a match of this scale that players are not confined to lying on the bed in their room. That doesnât do it. You want guys having coffee and talking, shooting the breeze, playing table tennis if they want to. But content. That we were the reigning champions helped. The boys knew how to be measured and concise. I put up the squad in the meeting room. Uini Atonio in a French jersey. Will Skelton in an Australian jersey. Levani Botia in a Fiji jersey. Kerr-Barlow in an All Black shirt. UJ Seuteni in a Samoan top. This is the best team in the world, they were told.
Now show that.
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Donal Lenihan: OâGara giving Irish rugby plenty of food for thought
For the final, the big thing for us was we knew how to get to the summit of Everest. We werenât sure this Leinster did. We employed the word brutal. If you want to do the summit of Everest, you had to walk over corpses.
Leinster have been shadow-boxing for large parts of the season. How many corpses had they to walk over between September and May? Thatâs not disrespect, thatâs rugby reality. We felt that when it came to the thinnest air, when they are on the ropes, gasping for breath, they could struggle. We had to make some part of it, a crucial part, tight and tense. I often describe the Top 14 pejoratively as a slog, but it girds you. And finals demand the ruthless killer in you.
We placed a huge emphasis on the bench because it had to come down to the last quarter. Ultan, Sclavi, Henri-Colombe, who ultimately won us the final. Iâm still getting to know our hooker Quentin Lespiaucq. In the gameâs last play, with the drama all around, and the noise cacophonous, with everything on the line, when he had to find a La Rochelle hand, he went right to the tail to Remi Bordeaux. The balls on that! This lad ainât frightened by finals footie, I said to him later. Itâs my job, he said. Routine, Process. Postmen and Roy Keane stuff.
There were little things from Marseille last year that were replicated. On Friday after the Captainâs Run at the stadium, Kyle Hatherell and Ultan Dillane â like Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Victor Vito last year â went and sourced some posh doughnuts in Dun Laoghaire and got them delivered to Lansdowne Road. We sat down in the dressing room after with good tunes and fresh cream.
JOB DONE: La Rochelle head coach Ronan OâGara celebrates with staff and players. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Friday evening, we asked the players: Qui emmeneras-vous sur votre Everest ce weekend? (Who will you take on your Everest this weekend?).
David Sharkey, from Mullingar, is an important part of the La Rochelle jigsaw. Heâs based in London and works remotely with us on themes. My brain isnât wired for connecting all the themes into something linear and cohesive. Iâm already jumping onto the next bit, so he manages to tie it all together nicely, the message we want to impart. Heâs an English teacher, which helps because his language is good, which is really important. I tell him what I am thinking, and he develops the theme.
George Mallory was an English mountaineer who died some hundreds of metres from the summit of Mount Everest in 1924. His remains werenât confirmed, identified and removed from the mountain top until 1999, some 75 years later. He is often described as Le plus celebre cadavre de LâEverest - the most famous corpse on Everest.
He scaled Everest with Andrew Irvine, and carried with him a picture of his wife, Ruth. Mallory knew how difficult and challenging the ascent would be. When he felt like giving up, he would need inspiration. He would look at his wife. We donât know whether he reached the top. The truth lies in the snow. But when his remains were found, the picture wasnât on him. Did he get to the summit, know his pending fate, and leave the picture of his wife there?
MUMâS THE WORD: Ronan OâGara with mother, and Joan at Lansdowne Road. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
We asked who would be the person the players wanted to walk the most painful yards with. To bring someone important with them on this weekend. I brought a picture of my mum. Given what had happened her last year with a bleed to the brain, it would have been easy to crack but we all insisted: No emotion at all. Itâs you, alone against 50,000 people in Dublin. When the going gets tough, itâs good to have someone you can turn to. Who is that person to get you over the line amid the carnage of a one-point Champions Cup final?
We flew home in the dead of a Dublin night, too alive. We were all flying at that stage. After draining every drop from the moment, we repaired to the Lansdowne clubhouse to meet our families properly. The trip to Dublin airport went unnoticed. Arriving back at 4am into La Rochelle, we were swallowed up by thousands. And tens of thousands more on Sunday.
HEROESâ WELCOME: La Rochelleâs players celebrate their European Rugby Champions Cup victory on Sunday. Picture: ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP
I looked around. These are powerful scenes. The players love it. I studied Uj Seuteni, a Samoan. And Levani Botia, from Fiji. And Will Skelton, an Austrlalian, and how he has grown when you thought a man of his scale couldnât grow any more.
And how they all belonged to this town in France. What a signing Seuteni has been. When you think of agents and telephones numbers and ego, bringing him in from Bordeaux-Begles was like that in no way whatsoever. It was the easiest, simplest, straight-forward negotiation, so I was convinced it was all going to blow up on signing day. Every answer from him was yes. Yes. Yes. And Yes. When he signed the contract, it was pure relief. Heâs JFF-qualified too, imagine. All those island boys need is to be respected. And they will give so much.
La Rochelle is smiling. The town is proud. That will last a while but the history will last forever. Now we must try and win a Bouclier. We got a sweat in today, Thursday. And will again on Friday. We need to reset, but after a week of celebration, everyone needs to reset anyway. Itâs a very natural next phase. Some boys will play the game against Stade Francais on Sunday night. I thought the game was Saturday, which says plenty about where my head was last week.
We will start to make plans soon for a Top 14 semi-final in San Sebastien. But not yet. I donât know how ready we are to dismount. I laughed with Donnacha Ryan at the thunderous explosion of joy and relief in the coachesâ box at the final whistle last Saturday. Pumped and primed to burst. A gushing release. Tremendous happiness.
Thereâs the flip side, which weâve seen too. I wanted to seek out some of the Leinster lads afterwards. There is a keen rivalry there, exaggerated in the last three years. We were on the pitch a while before I met Sean OâBrien for the second time. We both understood we were after coming out of a powder keg. He was great. You know Iâm a competitor, Rog.
I sure do.
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And they all lived happily ever after .
Wow. Thats a bit of a revelation.
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Itâs nonsense. They acted like privileged spoilt shites.
La Rochelle bait the brakes off em and they know it, thereâsno argument to be had.
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Was talking about o gara too
He can nearly do what he wants as long as he keeps winning. Looking at what he can do with a big pack, France should surely give him the job post world cup.
This is surely a wind up
Targets. Business talk ⌠ffs
You need only have asked me GattyâŚhe must have been the only fella who didnât know
https://twitter.com/JNPhillips4/status/1668876443164590080?t=sm6Y59nUAeILw97m0rxF8Q&s=19