Ronan O’Gara is relishing the opportunity to work with the Irish national team.
It was announced this week that the Munster and Ireland legend was being brought in as part of the Irish coaching team for the 2017 summer tour.
O’Gara is being brought in specifically for the American leg of the series where Ireland take on the Eagles in New York’s Red Bull Arena on June 10. He spoke about the position publicly for the first time on SportsJOE Live.
“I am luckily going on the first week of the summer tour with the Irish senior team to America. It’s really exciting to me to learn from what I consider to be the best coach in the world of rugby in Joe Schmidt. So for me, I cannot wait.”
“I talk to Joe a lot, I talk to Simon Easterby quite a bit. I talk to a lot of coaches in Munster – Jerry Flannery, Felix Jones (who’s) going for a week. Girvan Dempsey is going.”
“I suppose it’s a way of developing younger coaches. Something I think is important because you need to live these things to get better. I think it will be a great opportunity to see how the master works.”
With the Lions tour in full swing this summer, Ireland will be operating with a new look, younger team. This aspect in particular seems to excite O’Gara.
“Basically the role will be skills and hopefully working with the young number 10s. Depending on who goes it could be a number of young players and as you know it’s a position you get better with age. It’s important that their basic skills are good, especially their confidence levels are good. Hopefully I can pass on one or two learning tools and get to work with everybody.”
Watch the entire episode below.
