Ronan O’Gara: Everything you need to know about the Ireland legend : Planet Rugby

Ronan O’Gara: Everything you need to know about the Ireland legend

Dylan Coetzee
Rugby World Cup: Ireland's Ronan O'Gara looks on

General, tactician and genius come to mind when one looks at the career of the great Ronan O’Gara as a player and one of the world’s front-running coaches.

The Irishman had a lengthy career spanning over 16 years between Munster, Ireland and the British & Irish Lions.

O’Gara was a chief points scorer for all the teams he played throughout his career but it was his understanding of the game that really allowed him to become one of the sport’s greats.

Player background

The fly-half was born in San Diego to Irish parents before moving back to Ireland when O’Gara was only six months old.

He would go to several schools but settled at Presentation Brother College in Cork, thereafter he would enrol at University College Cork. By the end of his time in tertiary education, the 46-year-old graduated with a B.A and a master’s in Business Economics.

Club career

O’Gara made his debut for Munster in 1997 and shone as he scored 19 points – a clear sign of what was to come. The very next season he would go on to win the Irish Interprovincial Rugby Championship, a competition Munster would win three years on the bounce.

The fly-half started for Munster in the 2000 Heineken Cup final which his team lost 9-8 to Northampton Saints and again in the 2002 final where the side were beaten again, only this time to Leicester Tigers.

He would return to winning ways the next season as he was part of the Munster team that won the 2002-03 Celtic League before scoring 17 points in the 2005 Celtic Cup to down Llanelli Scarlets on the day.

O’Gara’s influence on Munster and the game as a whole continued to grow as he powered Munster to a sensational Heineken Cup title in 2006. This included a 20-point haul against Leinster in the semi-final that saw him score the decisive try in the dying minutes. In 2008 he would add another European Cup medal to his collection.

The same year, the fly-half became the first player in history to score 1,000 points in the Champions Cup and in 2010 he was awarded the ERC European Player Award as a reward for his continuation to the tournament in its first 15 years.

By this time he had added another Celtic League to his collection before claiming his third a season later.

The silverware dried up for Munster after that but the personal accolades continued to come O’Gara’s way as he exceeded 2,000 points for the province and in 2011 reached 200 appearances. Add to that becoming the second player to feature in 100 Champions Cup games for Munster, he would go on to become the most capped player in the tournament’s history – a record he still holds today.

O’Gara would hang up his boots in 2013 after becoming the club’s most-capped player.

International career

Such a successful career at club level was sure to translate to a brilliant Test career and that certainly was the case.

After being named in Ireland’s training squad for the 1999 Rugby World Cup, he was left out of the final squad but would debut the following year in the Six Nations.

O’Gara was establishing himself on the international scene and travelled to Australia in 2001 with the British & Irish Lions where he did not earn a Test cap but played two tour matches. For Ireland, he was the first-choice fly-half for the 2003 Rugby World Cup where he scored 30 points in the tournament.

A year later he would win his piece of silverware for his country as Ireland claimed the Triple Crown. In 2005 the Irishman would travel again with the Lions and earned his first Test cap against the All Blacks in the third Test.

By 2006, O’Gara would become Ireland’s highest points scorer and he would seal that achievement with another Triple Crown. The 2007 Rugby World Cup did not produce much for Ireland with the team failing to make it out of the group stages.

The star was named Ireland’s captain in 2008 before having a bumper season a year later. In 2009, not only did O’Gara become the highest points scorer in Six Nations history but he powered Ireland to a Grand Slam, winning his first Six Nations title.

He was selected for the Lions again and played more games on the South African tour than on the others, adding one Test and four tour games to his record.

Johnny Sexton would enter the fray to provide severe competition for the fly-half role, where he would be on and off the bench between 2010 and 2011, during which he became the first Irish player to score 1,000 Test points.

O’Gara’s rival would slowly grab more of a hold of the starting role over the next two years and in 2013 the Hall of Famer hung up his boots.

Coaching career

It was not long before he got stuck into coaching as he took up a role as defence coach of Racing 92 the same year he retired where he would work until 2017.

O’Gara would then join Scott Robertson’s coaching staff at the Crusaders as his assistant from 2017 to 2019 where the side won two Super Rugby titles.

It was then back to France for the Irishman who took a head coaching role at La Rochelle where he is still based. O’Gara coached the team to three consecutive Champions Cup finals. The French side lost the first and then went back-to-back, both times against Leinster in an impressive feat.

Net worth

Whilst there is no official indication, the Irishman’s estimated net worth is $12 million.

READ MORE: Dan Carter: Everything you need to know about the legendary All Black fly-half

British and Irish Lions Ronan O'Gara

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