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Gerry Thornley: Irish coaching talent is now more prized than ever before – well, abroad anyway

More opportunities need to be found for Irish coaches to bring the skills sharpened overseas to benefit the game here

Castres' Irish coach Jeremy Davidson looks on before the French Top14 rugby union match against Toulon at Stade Pierre-Fabre in Castres nback in April. Photograph: Valentine Chapuis/AFP via Getty Images

Gerry Thornley's face
Gerry Thornley
Fri May 19 2023 - 18:21

Nothing stands as a greater compliment to New Zealand rugby than the amount of coaches they’ve exported in the last three decades, particularly pre-dating professionalism. Indeed, no country has dipped into New Zealand’s knowledge and ability to be constantly at the cutting edge of the game than Ireland and it’s been to the benefit of the game here.

Add in the amount of Kiwi players who have been exported to European and Japanese rugby especially, and it’s clearly been a significant source of income to the New Zealand economy as well.

There’s always been a trickle of coaching talent brought across the water from England but, of course, they have become spectacularly successful and influential since the 2015 World Cup given the work Andy Farrell and Mike Catt have done with Ireland, Stuart Lancaster with Leinster and Graham Rowntree at Munster.

But whereas Ireland have always placed an emphasis on keeping their leading players under the IRFU umbrella with the four provinces, less so when it comes to aspiring coaches. That, though, has changed dramatically in recent times, and the hiring of Irish coaches abroad to an unprecedented level has to be seen as a compliment to the standards which have been achieved in Irish rugby in recent years.

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This weekend is a prized example, with Ronan O’Gara clearly the headline act as head coach of La Rochelle. His achievement in helping La Rochelle to win last season’s Champions Cup, the first trophy in the club’s history, and to a third final in a row against Leinster on Saturday, while also reaching the French Championship semi-finals with a couple of Top 14 rounds to spare, is incredible when you really think about it.

It’s hard to think of a better Irish coaching achievement abroad, and it’s all the more credible that O’Gara has done so in his second language and in what can be volatile terrain for coaches, especially those from overseas – as Michael Cheika, Jono Gibbes and others can testify.

O’Gara has also enlisted two former team-mates in Donnacha Ryan, as forwards coach who was largely responsible for that 14-phase pick-and-go assault on the Leinster line, and Sean Dougall, La Rochelle’s contact and skills coach, and strength and conditioning assistant coach.

The Friday night Challenge Cup final also features another of their former Munster team-mates in James Coughlan, as well as the former Connacht attack coach and Ireland under-20s head coach Nigel Carolan, who is now doing an exceptional job with a potent Glasgow side

There’s also another former Irish international working as a head coach in the Top 14 who receives comparatively scant attention and accolades for his remarkable longevity in French club rugby, namely Jeremy Davidson.

The former Ulster, London Irish and Castres lock won 32 caps as well as winning three Tests for the Lions in their epic series win in South Africa in 1997 when named players’ player of the tour at just 21, before he was forced to retire at the age of 27.

After stints as director of rugby at his home club Dungannon and as an assistant at Ulster, he moved to France in 2009 to become assistant coach at Castres for a couple of seasons. Davidson became a head coach for the first time with Aurillac in the ProD2, where for six seasons they punched way above their weight in regularly pushing for a place in the promotion playoffs despite having one of the smallest budgets in the French second tier.

After a stint as the forwards coach with Bordeaux-Begles in 2017-18, he was offered the opportunity to become head coach of Brive. He helped them to promotion in his first season there and kept them in the Top 14 for three seasons, again despite having one of the smallest budgets in the top flight.

However, after a tough start to the season, he was released last October, only to be hired by five-time French champions Castres in February when they sat 11th in the table and perilously close to the relegation zone. A four-game winning run against a quartet of clubs above them – Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier away and Toulon – took them to safety and, ironically, their 16-13 win away to Brive last Saturday condemned his former club to relegation. This was, he insisted, something that did not give him any pleasure and he expressed his sympathy for Brive.

In any case, Davidson has now been on the French club coaching circuit for 14 seasons and is still very much standing.

Over in the Premiership, despite their worrying financial difficulties, Declan Kidney guided London Irish to a fifth-place finish and with it qualification for the Champions Cup for the second season in a row. Jerry Flannery is part of the coaching ticket at Harlequins, helping them to their thrilling Premiership success two seasons ago, while another former Munster player and assistant coach, Felix Jones, has been lured by Steve Borthwick from working with the Springboks coaching ticket after the World Cup to become part of the English coaching team.

In the URC, another former Irish Under-20s coach, Noel McNamara, is now an attack and backs coach with the Sharks in South Africa after moving on from his role as the Leinster academy manager. The former Leinster contact skills coach, Hugh Hogan, who was always lauded by the province’s players for four seasons, is now the defence coach at the Scarlets.

True, roles have been found for Paul O’Connell with Ireland and more recently Seán O’Brien with Leinster. However, if there is a flaw in the IRFU system it has been its relative failure in developing Irish coaches who for the most part, have had to try their luck abroad.

Of the five fully professional adult teams in Ireland, namely the national team and the four provinces – only one has an indigenous coach, Leo Cullen. That’s why it was so good to see Mike Prendergast enlisted by Rowntree as Munster’s attack mastermind after cutting his teeth and proving his qualities during nine seasons on the French club scene as a skills and then mostly backs coach with Grenoble, Oyonnax, Stade Francais and Racing 92.

Likewise, John Muldoon has returned to Connacht after working under Pat Lam for three seasons at Bristol Bears in the Premiership.

Hopefully more of the coaching ex-pats will return to Irish rugby at some stages. It seems extraordinary that, for example, Coughlan’s time with Toulon will come to an end at the end of this season and no room has been found for him in the Irish system.

Such cross-fertilisation of ideas and philosophies is healthy and also inevitable in any professional team sport. All the above and more have sought pastures new of their own volition and will be better coaches for their experiences. It underlines how Irish coaching talent is now more prized than ever before – well, abroad anyway.