Joe Schmidt On The Addition Of Ronan O’Gara To His Coaching Team

High praise from the Ireland boss.

Racing 92 coach Ronan O’Gara will join Ireland’s coaching team this summer along with Leinster’s Girvan Dempsey and Munster’s Felix Ross.

The job is only temporary for all three with O’Gara joining for the American leg of their tour, while Dempsey and Jones will join for the Japanese leg. It’s the first time O’Gara has taken up a coaching role with his national side since retiring from the sport with Munster.

Joe Schmidt spoke to RTE Radio One this morning and discussed the trio’s roles, and he reckons they will will add ‘a bit of spark to the coaching team.’

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with Ronan over the years, and especially with him being in France and my experiences over there,” Schmidt said.

“We conversed often on what’s happening over there and a little bit of what’s happening here.

“He’s indicated that he’s keen to get into the environment just to get a bit of a look so we’re going to put him to work and he’s going to do some skills-coach work with us.

“Girvan Dempsey, who is I think, growing in confidence all the time in his role in Leinster, and the same with Felix Jones who has made a really positive impression under Rassie Erasmus and Munster.

“I think they are three outstanding young men who have fantastic potential to be coaching in this country and we want to try and get the best out of them on tour.

“[We want] to give them all an opportunity so they are overlapping for the best past of eight to ten days the first one [O’Gara] and nine days for the other two.

“I’m really looking forward to working with them. I’ve obviously worked with Girv before and I’ve worked with Felix in a coach-player relationship. He was superb to coach as a player.

“I’ve known Ronan for a long time. They’ll add a bit of a spark to the coaching group.”

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