THERE’S NOT AN attack coach in the world who wouldn’t be happy to watch one of his players sauntering over for four tries in one half of rugby.
Noel McNamara, the Irish attack coach of French club Bordeaux, had that delightful experience a couple of weekends ago as wing sensation Damian Penaud bagged a quartet of scores on his home debut for the club in a Top 14 win over Perpignan.
Penaud is one of the stars of a squad that includes lots of other superb attacking talents. France out-half Matthieu Jalibert, wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey, and scrum-half Maxime Lucu are also among them, with plenty of quality up front too.
This group of players is among the key reasons McNamara decided to join Union Bordeaux Bègles last summer, having spent two years with the Sharks of South Africa, and the former Ireland U20s and Leinster academy boss is enjoying getting to know the Frenchmen.
“Damian is a fascinating guy,” says McNamara, who has been plotting for Friday night’s Champions Cup opener against Connacht in Galway.
“He did a great interview with Canal+ where they were saying how amazing it was that he scored four tries in the first half. He said, ‘What do expect me to do? Pass to the touchline? I’m the last player, I just have to score.’
“That gives an insight into his personality. The game happens in slow motion for him. He sees it, he does it, and he doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about.”
It has been a highly enjoyable opening few months for McNamara in Bordeaux, a beautiful city of around 250,000 people in southwestern France. His wife, Sinead, and their three young daughters have settled in well and the fact that Ireland is a short direct flight away helps after two seasons in Durban.
“We’ve been a little nomadic,” says McNamara, whose intriguing coaching journey has also involved a stint in New Zealand rugby with North Harbour in 2018.
His daughters have certainly shown adaptability early in life and he says his four-year-old is already correcting his French. In fairness to McNamara, he has come a long way since his very first Zoom call with the Bordeaux coaches before arriving in France. He didn’t understand a word of it.
An intense course of French lessons continues and just being in the country has helped, with head coach Yannick Bru insisting that McNamara did everything en français from the beginning.
“Now it’s the stage where you’re trying to be better at understanding people and having genuine conversations outside of rugby,” says McNamara. “The rugby language is OK but that connection piece, the relationship building, is the challenge.”
McNamara isn’t a former professional rugby player. He hails from O’Callaghan’s Mills, a village in Clare that is proud of its GAA history. McNamara also played soccer and only started this rugby coaching journey when he joined Glenstal Abbey as a teacher.
He later moved on to Clongowes Wood, enjoyed more success as a rugby coach there, and started to lead Leinster and Ireland age-grade teams. His time in charge of the Ireland U20s included a Grand Slam success in 2019 before he took on the Leinster academy gig.
McNamara is an avid learner and voracious reader. He’s ambitious too and his growing reputation led to his appointment as attack coach of the Sharks in South Africa in 2021. The two years that followed were huge in his development as a coach.
“I’m always at pains to point out that rugby is about people, first and foremost,” says McNamara when asked what he learned most in South Africa.
“I learned a huge amount from people and about people whilst I was over there. Coming from a background of teaching, presenting, understanding, learning, all of that kind of stuff would be things I considered strong points – pulling together a presentation or whatever method – but ultimately that doesn’t count for an awful lot when it comes to it.
“You learn pretty quickly that you’ve got to build relationships with people, earn their trust, build a connection. Once they know or understand you want to help them get better, you can get into the actual coaching part of it.”
He points out that the back-to-back World Cup-winning Springboks are brilliant in this regard. They focus on how players contribute to the greater goal. They simplify things. Everyone is aligned and moving in the same direction. They understand what leadership author Simon Sinek terms as the ‘what, how, and why.’
Before his time in South Africa, McNamara had a view on how the game should be played, understandably based on what had been successful for Irish teams. In South Africa, he found different approaches.
“I’ve learned that maybe it’s not necessarily about what you do, but how you do it and why you do it.
“There’s a lot of criticisms of the South African approach, but it was very, very clear that they knew what their story was, they knew how they wanted to go about their business, and I think there’s a lot of power in that.”
The Sharks squad included players from diverse backgrounds – Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and others – so it was a key challenge to simplify things and ensure everyone was getting the same message clearly.
The diversity extended to the geography of South Africa. The altitude of Pretoria, the humidity of Durban – there’s an array of challenges even on that front.
And McNamara also came to appreciate how the reality of life in South Africa feeds into the rugby players the nation produces.
“It’s a beautiful country, remarkable in lots of ways, but it’s an incredibly challenging place to live as well,” he says.
“I think that creates a certain type of mindset and a certain pride in South African people. It’s documented around the energy crisis, the load shedding, the safety concerns, but also they are really connected to why they do what they do.”
The Sharks reached the URC quarter-finals in both of McNamara’s seasons there and he loved working with and learning from the likes of Makazole Mapimpi, Lukhanyo Am, Jaden Hendrikse, Aphelele Fassi, and Eben Etzebeth.
He had an offer to stay with them beyond the end of last season but the chance in Bordeaux, who currently sit seventh in the Top 14, was too good to turn down. Bru, who had consulted with the Sharks, wanted McNamara to join his new project and the Irishman was convinced.
It helped that he also knew forwards coach Akvsenti Giorgadze from the Sharks, while the sheer talent of a young squad was hard to resist. The lure of the Top 14 was also huge for McNamara. Every game in the French league is akin to a huge Champions Cup match.
“It’s an incredible marathon really,” he says.
“It’s an incredibly competitive league and that was a huge attraction. Our home support averages out at 28,000 people. The away support is incredible too. We played in La Rochelle and Toulouse with massive Bordeaux support welcoming us there too.”
The young players emerging in French rugby are another reason for excitement. The Bordeaux squad includes the likes of centre Nicolas Depoortère and back row Marko Gazzotti, who helped the France U20s to World Cup glory earlier this year.
And the big guns have started to fire in recent weeks after returning from World Cup duty. There’s lots of non-French firepower up front as well in the likes of Pete Samu, Adam Coleman, Kane Douglas, Ben Tameifuna, and Tevita Tatafu, so McNamara has some big weapons for his attack.
His philosophy has sharpened over the years, but the messages are still simple.
“For me, the defence gives you your attack,” says McNamara. “We have some key principles on the ball and off the ball that we believe strongly in. It’s pretty non-negotiable around some of those but ultimately, for me, it’s about creating a framework where players can make decisions, express themselves, and take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to them.
“I was a maths teacher for a long time, so I understand the dimensions of the pitch, the metres squared, and there’s only 15 people who can cover it in a certain way. The game is about space, playing ‘big space,’ and doing it quickly.
“Some of coaching is about helping players to scan better, get better depth, then get on the same page so we’re looking for and seeing the same things. It’s about making better decisions so we ensure we take the highest-value decision in the least amount of time with people on the same page.”
McNamara is obsessed with the basics of the game, things like presenting the ball well after being tackle, passing well, cleaning rucks well, and having good depth. He wants those little things done accurately with “absolute pace and physicality.”
He never lets up on his players about things that don’t require talent to do well. If the ball is on the ground available to be won, that comes down to pure mindset. Winning the ball there could lead to a try so McNamara sees no excuses.
The quality of a single pass can be the difference between scoring and not scoring, so it makes sense to McNamara to focus on that aspect as much as anything.
“A lot of the time, it’s maybe not the actual play you call in attack that’s important but actually the principles – the depth you have, your ability to pass the ball, your ability to create doubt in a defender’s mind. That’s more important than running a ‘Zulu King 46′!”
He has his players focused on working hard off the ball. His thinking goes that the earlier his players work hard, the more likely they are to see opportunities, communicate them to team-mates, then execute against what the defence has presented.
The next challenge in that regard is against Connacht at the Sportsground on Friday night. With rain forecast at the moment, conditions might be tough, but he’ll be hoping to break down Scott Fardy’s defence.
He’s been impressed with the work being done by Peter Wilkins, Mark Sexton, Fardy, John Muldoon, and Collie Tucker – who he worked with for the Ireland U20s – but McNamara is excited for his players to take on a new challenge.
“It’s going to be a huge test for us away from home but that’s not something to be diminished by. It’s something to be excited about.
“The change of music, the change of balls, the change of scenery, an Irish team that’s not as familiar to the guys – that’s the beauty of the Champions Cup.”
