La Rochelle Head Coach Ronan O’Gara has opened up about his ‘love hate’ relationship with Ireland captain Johnny Sexton. O’Gara explained how the two legendary fly halves fail to see eye to eye, due to the fierce Champions Cup rivalry between Leinster and O’Gara’s Stade Rochelais.
O’Gara has been at the helm for La Rochelle, for their two previous back-to-back Champions Cup triumphs. Both titles have come at the expense of Leinster, as the Dubliners took silver medals away from Marseille in 2022, before they failed to add the Champions Cup to their home trophy cabinet at the Aviva Stadium last time out.
Sexton surpassed O’Gara’s long-standing reign as Ireland’s top points scorer, as he scored a try and added 11 points from the boot in last weekend’s Rugby World Cup pool stage match against Tonga. Sexton was asked after the match if O’Gara had congratulated Sexton on the accomplishment, with the Irish captain’s reply being “I’m not sure we’re talking to each other after the European Cup final”.
Speaking with former Scotland international Jim Hamilton on a Rugbypass interview, O’Gara explained the current state of affairs between him and Sexton.
“It’s been a love hate, hate love, hate love (relationship).” said O’Gara (via Balls.ie).
“Probably at the minute, it’s hate, if that’s the right way (to put it). We’ve chatted this through. Two into one doesn’t go. La Rochelle and Leinster don’t go.”
O’Gara added his praise for Sexton’s latest career accolade, who’s Ireland points tally now sits at 1,090 in total, seven to the good of O’Gara 1,083. “I respect the fact that someone who is very serious and who works hard gets a huge reward. It is an individual achievement but at the same time, it’s a fantastic thing he has achieved.
Sexton was the centre of a post-match altercation at the 2023 Champions Cup Final, as the long-serving Leinsterman verbally abused a match official following La Rochelle’s win. Sexton was side-lined for the match after he re-aggravated a groin injury at the 2023 Six Nations, yet that did not stop him from getting onto the pitch to speak his mind.
Sexton received a three match ban for the offence, and sat out on Ireland’s Summer Nations Series matches against Italy, England and Samoa, ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
Sexton and O’Gara’s rivalry dates all the way back to their first meeting on October 6th, 2006, when a fresh-faced Sexton broke onto the scene in just his fourth match for Leinster. This 27-20 Leinster win in the 2006/07 Celtic League ignited a firecracker of an inter-twined rivalry, that has been burning for just under 17 years.
The two halfbacks would battle it out throughout the years, as the hottest club match of the Celtic League, and then the Pro12 season was undoubtedly O’Gara’s Munster vs Sexton’s Leinster. O’Gara first passed the torch to Sexton on the international stage in 2009, as the Leinsterman made his Ireland in an Autumn International test match against Fiji. Sexton slotted 16 points and won man of the match, as the sands of time began to fall for O’Gara.
The iconic fly-half hung up his boots in 2013, which ushered in a new era of Ireland under Sexton. However, their story would continue as the two re-united in a player-coach vicinity at Racing 92. O’Gara went on to discuss the different relationships he’s had with Sexton, which has since again become an out-and-out rivalry at the peak of European club rugby.
“There was Ireland careers together,” said O’Gara. “I coached him in Racing. That’s a coach-player relationship. That’s very different.
“There’s so many different layers to Johnny but there’s a really good soldier. I’d like to really think the same (about me) but sometimes, the perception isn’t reality with the two of them.
“You’re essentially responsible for your team when you’re the ten, the boss and the goalkicker, and in his case the captain. You’re trying to drive the team.
“What has happened in the last few seasons has been the fact that we have come across them. He’s trying to drive his team, I’m trying to drive my team.”
“It’s pretty fake if you think everything is going to be rosy. This is European Cups that we are talking about. This means an awful lot to an awful lot of people.
“There’s going to be, without anything controversial, a difference in opinion on how we see things. I’m trying to mess him and he’s trying to mess my team up. If you have two strong minds, it’s not going to be a period where you’re going to get on.
“The most important thing, there will be huge respect there. You can park that and hopefully revisit it because you’d appreciate it that once you come out of that environment, your ball of stress and competitiveness, there’s a whole new world out there and there will be many years after where you will be able to have a vin rouge and a nice bit of fromage and chat through how crazy we were at that period.”