Former Crusaders coach Andrew Goodman insists Ronan O’Gara has the potential to become the first Irishman to coach Super Rugby.
The former Leinster player and newly arrived Leinster assistant coach worked with ROG at the Crusaders through 2018 and 2019.
And he believes New Zealand rugby would embrace the Irishman should he decide his post-La Rochelle future lies Down Under rather than in Ireland.
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“Yeah, definitely, he is someone they would look at, 100 per cent,” said Goodman.
“ROG made a great impression on the team in the years he was there and he’s come away and done great things with La Rochelle.
“I don’t know if his family would be back on that plane with their five kids again but if he wanted to it would be a possibility.”
Goodman made an instant connection with O’Gara in Christchurch, not least as the his two seasons at Leinster (2012-14) coincided with O’Gara’s last season at Munster.
“I had a great time with ROG at Crusaders, he saw the game differently to others, he was a good friend and I’ve stayed in touch with him.
“He has an amazing perspective on the game with all that experience at such a high level.
“The connections he built with players and the little bits of gold he could give them, especially Richie Mo’unga and those boys. He had a great impact in the couple of years he was there.”
In his own way, Goodman is following O’Gara’s example this season, trading the Crusaders limelight to take up broader coaching opportunities.
“It was a big decision to leave the Crusaders, one I had to think over for a long time,” he said.
“Leo (Cullen, above) was pretty persistent on the phone, but I let the Crusaders know straight away on the first phone call, and they were very supportive and kind of understood the reasons why I would seriously consider coming back to here.
“At the stage I’m in in my coaching career, having been involved with Tasman and the Crusaders and the way they play, I saw it as an opportunity, selfishly, for me to come over here and grow as a coach as well, to learn off some amazing coaches.
“I think Stuart Lancaster has done fantastic things for this club so I was really interested to see the way he operates and runs the Leinster programme.
“I got on well with Leo when I was here and was excited to see Seanie O’Brien was coming back as well, so there was lots of positives. I see this as enhancing me as a coach going forward.”
There is also O’Gara as ‘role model’, having seen the Irishman adapt to New Zealand, it was about the New Zealander similarly adapting to Ireland.
Infamously, ROG was told to ‘take it easy’, to watch a bit more and say a little less for a while, following his first few days at Crusaders.
Goodman added: “Yeah, there’s definitely a little bit of that in the first few weeks, having to step back and learning and observing what’s going on.
“Learning how they do things, how they operate, getting to know the players well away from rugby and building those relationships.
“I suppose it’s being confident in myself as well if I do have ideas, part of the reason Leo approached me as well was to get some info on what the Crusaders do well and add that into the Leinster flavour as well. So those conversations are always happening and as I said, I’m learning lots and hopefully I can keep adding stuff as the two years go on.”
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