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Brian O'Driscoll: ROG and Jonny Sexton will be allies in France

The Leinster talisman says Sexton’s even invited O’Gara to his wedding. He’ll want that bouquet.

INPHO/James Crombie

BRIAN O’DRISCOLL INSISTS Ronan O’Gara and Jonny Sexton will get on just fine in Paris.

The Leinster centre says he — like many of us — was left rubbing his eyes in disbelief when news of O’Gara’s new coaching role with Racing Metro dropped flashed up on his phone last week.

The Corkman — a good friend of O’Driscoll’s after many years in the treches together — will join the Racing Metro staff which will hope to coach new signing Jonny Sexton to Heineken Cup glory next season.

“I was as shocked as anyone else,” O’Driscoll told Eoin McDevitt on the SecondCaptains podcast today. “The boys have had an interesting relationship over the years but it’s grown into a good relationship that people probably aren’t aware of. I think they’ll be good allies to have each other over there. The dynamic will actually work well.

Asked about constant claims of friendship, from the former rivals for the Ireland No 10 shirt, O’Driscoll says it’s ‘genuine’.

“It’s not a case of covering up anything,” he continued. “You can only slag people if they’re able to take it. So they are good friends now and I think so much so that ROG has been invited to Jonny’s wedding, as far as I know. They get each other, they’ve spent a lot of time together. They got off to a bad footing in Croker all those years ago and I think ROG understands the competitive nature of Jonny and vice versa. When you’re vying for the same position there’s always going to be a little bit of tension involved.

“And I think when Jonny became the No 1, not that Ronan resigned himself to the fact that he was going to be No 2 but there was a little bit more acceptance that that was the running order and the relationship cooled and everything was good. When they spent so much time together in kicking sessions and days off they probably got to know each other’s personalities a bit better.”

Listen to the full programme here, or skip to O’Driscoll about 27 minutes in:


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