 O'Gara in 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth name | Ronan John Ross O'Gara | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 7 March 1977 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | San Diego, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 84 kg (13.2 st; 185 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Presentation Brothers College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| University | University College Cork | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ronan John Ross O'Gara (born 7 March 1977) is an Irish former rugby union player and current coach. O'Gara played as a fly-half and is Ireland's second most-capped player[2] and second highest points scorer. He is currently head coach of La Rochelle in the French Top 14.
O'Gara won 128 caps for Ireland, winning three Triple Crowns and the Grand Slam in 2009. He also played on three British & Irish Lions tours, winning two caps. He played for sixteen seasons with Munster, with whom he won two Heineken Cups.
O'Gara is the tenth most-capped and is the sixth highest points scorer in the history of test rugby.[3] He is also Munster's all-time leading scorer, and holds the Heineken Cup record for points and caps.[4] O'Gara scored several match-winning drop goals for Munster and Ireland, including in the 78th minute of the Wales vs Ireland match in the 2009 Six Nations Championship, in which Ireland won the Grand Slam.
Since his retirement from playing, O'Gara has undertaken a coaching career. O'Gara began coaching in 2013 with French club Racing 92 as the club's defence coach before becoming the assistant defence coach of the New Zealand club Crusaders in 2018. The Crusaders would win two Super Rugby titles while O'Gara was a member of their coaching team. O'Gara took up his first head coach role in 2019 when he returned to France and was announced as the new coach of Stade Rochelais. Since taking over as head coach, O'Gara has guided La Rochelle to three European Cup finals, the second of which in the 2022 final they beat Leinster to claim the club's first ever major silverware, with a repeat performance in Dublin in the 2023 final.
- ^ "Munster 200 Club | Ronan O'Gara". Munster Rugby. 12 May 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
- ^ "Most Ireland Appearances". irishrugby.ie. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
- ^ "Ronan O'Gara: A Record-Breaking Career To Remember". irishrugby.ie. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
- ^ "Now O'Gara Joins Racing Metro 92". ercrugby.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2015.