IT TOOK A while for the cameramen and photographers to find him but there was Ronan O’Gara perched high in one of the stands at Stade Marcel Deflandre, a beanie on his head, and a rather despondent look on his face.
Banned from being with his team for one match, O’Gara was in the role of spectator. He has become accustomed to beating Leinster in the past three years so it was obvious why he wasn’t smiling.
This was only a pool game so it’s not total revenge for Leinster after the deep dejection of the last three seasons. There are three more rounds of pool games for La Rochelle to recover in, so they should still feature in the knock-outs.
O’Gara will be back in the thick of it from now on, with his suspension served. The Irishman was able to do the post-match media duties on Saturday night and he was magnanimous after his side’s 16-9 defeat.
“There’s huge respect between them,” said O’Gara of the heated rivalry. “Obviously, I’d say there’s a little bit more hurt in Leinster because if you’re the coach having been pipped in two finals, it’s extremely difficult.
“I just met Leo [Cullen] there and said it’s a good win for him because people don’t see that ruthless side of the game where they’re kinda wondering if they have an issue with La Rochelle but it’s never like that. It’s a big day for him, it’s a big day for their coaching group, it’s a big day for them. That’s what sport is about.
“It doesn’t change anything, there was always huge respect there. When I’m here, you want to get the best out of your players. I don’t think I or we got the best out of the team today but we get another go.”
It feels like this rivalry has a few more chapters to go and it would be riveting to see the pair of them battle again later this season.
Yesterday’s encounter was vicious, particularly in a wild opening quarter when it threatened to spill over and finally did when Jonathan Danty and Joe McCarthy were sin-binned after an extended scuffle between the teams.
O’Gara wouldn’t be opposed to a fifth meeting between the clubs in just four seasons.
“Well if we get another crack at them, it means we’re in the knock-out stages,” he said with a smile. “We need to get our campaign back, it’s going to be a really difficult game next up but that’s the beauty of sport at this level.
“It’s never simple, there’s always rollercoasters but it’s the first bump in two and a half years where this team has lost in the Champions Cup which is a phenomenal statistic. Now that’s gone and we’re fighting to prove ourselves again because we need to keep in contact with teams that are qualifying.”
La Rochelle are now on their way to South Africa for Saturday afternoon’s clash with the Stormers, who rested their frontliners for the visit to Leicester last weekend and will come out all guns blazing. So O’Gara’s men need a big response to this narrow defeat against Leinster.
He is happy to be free to return to his hands-on duties as head coach on game day after a one-game suspension that he was clearly frustrated with.
O’Gara strongly contested the charge over his “indiscipline” after a Top 14 game against Racing 92 but was banned for one game. He didn’t hold back yesterday when suggesting he had been treated unfairly.
“It’s painful, it impacts a lot,” said O’Gara of his latest ban, which made it a total of 21 weeks of suspensions in recent seasons across five different bans.
“You go to the ground and then you get shuffled away up to the third storey. It’s a massive match.
“They’ll say there’s no smoke without fire but in that case, it’s small man syndrome in terms of keeping the power.
“You get cited and they hear the facts. With any bit of common sense, you explain the situation and the jury heard it. Hanging up the Zoom call, you’re onto the next job and then you’re picking up Rugbyrama and you read about a one-week suspension.
“Every French journalist here, I think they know me. It’s hard when the chef of the arbitres [head of referees] doesn’t work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. You get the feedback Thursday evening, maybe. But the next match is on Sunday evening. Not in this instance, but it’s infuriating, the system.
“You look for feedback on Monday but the response is on Thursday evening when you have another match in 24 hours. I try to stay positive but there are things that aren’t good. It’s like that.”
