Some La Rochelle’s players caught their head coach, Ronan O’Gara, by surprise when they soaked him with water while he was busy with an interview following their Champions Cup triumph over Leinster in Dublin on Saturday.
After the match, the former Munster and Ireland fly-half was in the midst of an interview with RTE where he was singing the praises of his former Munster and Ireland team-mate Donnacha Ryan, who is part of La Rochelle’s coaching staff.
“The big learnings from my days as a player and a coaching, you get good people in the building first and then you work on their confidence,” said O’Gara. “Shkin [Ryan] started off – would you believe he’s coaching for two years and he has two European cup medals?
‘He’s probably the most performing coach in the world. Statistically, he tops all the data. You know how deep Shkin is, he’s got a heart of gold, but at the start he wanted a bit of a PhD in lineouts,’ O’Gara continued. ‘I was there, ‘Shkin, just win the ball, I can launch a few attacks, just win the ball, and he was…”
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O’Gara was set to continue when his players, including full-back Brice Dulin, openside flanker Levani Botia and inside centre Jonathan Danty, sneaked up on him from behind before cutting him short in mid-sentence with their celebrations.
☔️😂 Ronan O'Gara gets the Gatorade shower treatment! #HeinekenChampionsCup #LEIvLAR pic.twitter.com/koEIyJOnKg
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) May 20, 2023
The 46-year-old was drenched in water and the RTE panel laughed at his expense before he departed the scene to join in his team’s celebrations.
It was the second successive year that the Top 14 outfit had beaten the Irish province in the Champions Cup final. La Rochelle’s 27-26 triumph was achieved in style as O’Gara’s troops launched a stunning comeback, after Leinster raced into a 17-0 lead during the early stages of the first half.
A brace of tries from Dan Sheehan and another five-pointer from Jimmy O’Brien, with one conversion from Ross Byrne, gave the Leinsterman that healthy lead before La Rochelle struck back with tries of their own from Jonathan Danty and Ulupano Seuteni.
Leinster still held the upper-hand though and held a 23-14 lead at half-time.
Strong finish from La Rochelle
La Rochelle took control of proceedings in the second half though as Leinster’s only points during that period was another Byrne penalty, while Antoine Hastoy keeping the scoreboard ticking for the French outfit with a couple of three-pointers off the kicking tee of his own.
However, La Rochelle clinched victory with a late try from Georges Colombe which Hastoy also converted.
