OLI JAGER WASN’T sure about rugby at the start. His Dutch father, Harm, a former water polo international, took him down to Naas RFC near their family home in Kildare when Oli was nine.
He hated it but his dad encouraged him to stick in there. Slowly but surely, Jager came to enjoy the game. It was handy in the years that followed that Harm was a qualified strength and conditioning coach, helping Oli to develop physically and impress as a back row.
Jager continued to play in first year at Newbridge College before he needed to switch to a boarding school for second year. That was when his mother, Therese, who hails from Kilcullen, had to move to Abu Dhabi for her job with Etihad.
So it was that Jager – who was born in London – shifted to Blackrock College in Dublin, where his rugby journey continued. He slotted into the front row for the first time in third year due to an injury there but returned to the back row when he played for the Junior Cup team again in fourth year, helping Blacrock to a Leinster Schools title in 2011.
He graduated to the senior team the following season and while he wanted to break in as a flanker, another injury in the front row saw him slotting in at tighthead. He went on to win the Leinster Schools Senior Cup alongside the likes of Nick Timoney and Jeremy Loughman in 2013, who will be his new team-mate in Munster.
Jager was good enough to play for the Leinster and Ireland U18 Schools teams and he was a fine athlete – having won an All-Ireland shot put title in 2010 – but there was no place for him in the Leinster academy or sub-academy when he finished in Blackrock.
Jager was still young enough for another season of Senior Cup rugby and was encouraged to repeat sixth year of school, but he wasn’t interested.
His dad gave Trinity rugby guru Tony Smeeth a shout wondering what his son could do next and Smeeth recommended the International Academy that the Crusaders in New Zealand run. Young players pay to join this programme in which they train alongside the Crusaders’ academy players.
Jager signed up for a month-long stint in Christchurch, although it wasn’t his first visit to New Zealand. As a 14-year-old back row, he had spent a week at the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand – similar to the Crusaders’ international programme – where he met Scott Robertson for the first time. Little did Jager know back then that Robertson would later be a key figure in his professional career.
When he was still only 17, Jager flew out to New Zealand for his spell with the Crusaders academy and made such an impression that he was invited to return to play club rugby for local club New Brighton the following year. He moved over for the 2014 campaign.
It seemed disaster had struck that April when he ruptured the ACL in his knee but they stuck by Jager and having recovered fully to shine for New Brighton, he was offered a place in the Canterbury academy by 2015. Canterbury are the provincial side who share a training base and staff with the Crusaders.
It was progress but things were still far from easy for Jager. He had a day job alongside his training commitments. Without a car, he often had to cycle an hour to and from work on the same day as training twice with Canterbury.
He was also still going through the steep learning curve of being a tighthead prop. When he moved to New Zealand, he hoped to excel in the back row, but the locals in Christchurch saw his future in the front row. Jager slogged away in the gym, bulking up to over 120kg and obsessively studying the likes of All Blacks legend Owen Franks at work in Rugby Park, where Canterbury and the Crusaders train.
He played his first season in the National Provincial Championship with Canterbury in 2016, helping them to claim the title and win the famed Ranfurly Shield along the way.
At that stage, Jager was still thinking about Ireland caps when he imagined playing Test rugby but Robertson – by then the Crusaders head coach – felt he had the potential to force his way into the All Blacks conversation down the line, having qualified under the residency rule.
Test rugby was still a long way off, but Jager continued to progress in the years that followed. 2017 brought his Super Rugby debut for the Crusaders and he was part of their sensational ongoing run of seven consecutive titles thereafter. Jager played for the Crusaders 54 times, with 20 of those games as the starting tighthead.
Naturally enough, Christchurch became home. Jager settled into life with his partner, Georgie, and they got married a couple of years ago. He started to believe that he could push into the All Blacks mix and that was his ambition until very recently.
Munster tried to lure Jager back to Ireland in 2022 but he re-signed with the Crusaders for another two years at that point.
Just last year, Jager was named in the All Blacks XV – the Kiwis’ second-string national team – squad for a visit to Dublin to play Ireland A. Playing would have meant Jager’s eligibility being ‘captured’ by New Zealand but a neck injury ended up ruling him out, so he remains Irish-eligible.
The recovery from his neck surgery kept Jager out for the start of this 2023 season but he returned to action in April and played what have proven to be his final few games for the Crusaders as they claimed another Super Rugby title. Jager started the final victory over the Chiefs in June, playing nearly the entire 80 minutes.
With Robertson taking over as All Blacks boss following the recent World Cup, it had seemed that Jager would never have a better chance of taking the step up but that won’t be the case as he instead moves back to Ireland in the coming weeks to join Munster and attempt to force his way into reckoning with Andy Farrell’s national team.
Despite missing out on signing him two seasons ago, Munster continued to track Jager and made another play for him in recent months. Initially, it had seemed the move would happen in the summer of 2024 when Jager’s Crusaders deal expired but Munster pushed to complete the signing now.
Jager was able to negotiate an early release from his deal with the Crusaders, which hints that he wasn’t in Robertson’s All Blacks plans, and he will begin his new chapter with Munster at the start of December.
A three-and-a-half-year contract is a statement of Munster’s confidence in him, while it also indicates the IRFU’s sense that Jager is a strong addition. This is not a central IRFU contract but the union’s performance director David Nucifora is involved in green-lighting all of these kinds of deals.
Munster’s current two senior tightheads, Stephen Archer and John Ryan, are 35 now and both are out of contract at the end of this season. While 26-year-old Roman Salanoa’s deal runs until 2025, he is currently injured.
There is also 24-year-old tighthead Keynan Knox but it appears that Munster haven’t been satisfied with his development. He is also out of contract at the end of this season and it’s believed that Knox will leave.
Jager is undoubtedly a good addition to the Munster squad, even if there is bound to be a settling-in period, which could be more difficult given that he has no pre-season in which to find his feet. The set-piece demands in the URC and Champions Cup are more severe than in Super Rugby, according to those who have previously made the move, so Jager will have an obvious challenge in that regard.
Munster boss Graham Rowntree is a good judge of props, of course, and he clearly believes Jager has what it takes. At 6ft 4ins and now close to 130kg, he’s a big man.
What’s in very little doubt is Jager’s ability to fit into Munster’s high-tempo, expansive brand of rugby. He is comfortable on the ball and well capable of distributing as well as carrying. He looks like an ideal fit for Munster in this regard.
The southern province have been on the hunt for a signing at tighthead prop for years now and it’s ideal that they’ve landed an Irish-qualified player who is only heading into the prime of his career. Munster believe they have secured a man who can become a cornerstone of their pack.
Farrell will be watching closely as Jager adapts in the coming months. His three tightheads from the World Cup, Tadhg Furlong, Finlay Bealham, and Tom O’Toole, are 31, 32, and 25, respectively. Ryan, 35, is the only other tighthead Farrell has capped.
Jager at 28 and with plenty of Super Rugby experience, could be a nice addition to the Irish depth chart if his move to Munster is a success.
The Kildare man is back in Irish rugby after taking a distinctly unique pathway.
