FORMER IRELAND AND MUNSTER OUT HALF Ronan O'Gara has again hinted that he could over as head coach of the England Rugby team, when Eddie Jones leaves the hotseat.
The Cork native is the director of rugby at French Top 14 side La Rochelle but could be tempted into a more high-profile job if the right offer came up.
O' Gara guided La Rochelle to Champions Cup glory last season, but once more made his feelings known about the England job.
Eddie Jones has come under fire for England's form over the last number of years. However, England have a World Cup coming up, an event that Jones has performed well in.
Despite this many people believe that the role will become available. O'Gara has been asked before if he'd interested in coaching England. He doubled down and said he would.
“Yeah, of course, I would be,” he told the London Times
Exclusive @TimesSport with Ronan O’Gara @Barbarian_FC.
England, are you listening? He’s interested in taking the job post 2023.
🗣 “Yeah, of course. It’s a huge job”https://t.co/yyFi8qwKJc— Will Kelleher (@willgkelleher) November 10, 2022
“It’s a huge job. There’s probably a lot involved with it, and you’d have to be very firm with what your criteria are and what your role is. When you strip it all back, essentially you want to be winning games, but you need a strong support network around you to be put in that position,
“I would be thorough in my approach; in terms of what country, you’d like to coach. There are a handful that jump out straight away.”
It's obvious that O'Gara would pick his home country over England if given the choice between the two, but with Andy Farrell in charge of the Irish team it doesn't seem like that would become a reality just yet.
Another scenario could be Farrell leaving to replace Jones as head coach of his own country. He's one of the favourites to replace the Australian.
For now, O'Gara is concentrating on his club rugby with La Rochelle.
“I’m from Ireland, which would have a special appeal (coaching them). I would consider long and hard about what country. They’re all different, and they would have different replies,” O'Gara added
“It’s a professional game, and if one job was to be just the coach for a side at Test level for your own country, I could see that appealing to me, and also concentrating on the club game.
“But then you might want to try, if your health allows, to be a veteran Test coach where you could have 20 years at Test level — there are coaches that have done that and done brilliantly.”
It's not the first time he's made remarks about the England job. The 47-year-old earlier in the year was asked by BT Sport about taking the England job and said: “Yeah, it would be a great job I think actually,” O’Gara claimed in April.
“Yeah, what a team. There’s so much potential there. There’s serious rugby players; serious passion for the game in England. It’s a cracking job, you’d love to have a go off that.”
O' Gara is part of the coaching set-up for the Barbarians v All Blacks XV game that will kick-off at 2pm on Saturday
Would Ronan O'Gara fancy coaching England? 🤔
"Yeah, it would be a great job. What a team."#RugbyTonight pic.twitter.com/XpedpHOfZU— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) April 3, 2022
