Not bad Skin as Donncha drives La Rochelle to back to back Champions Cups
By Shane Brophy
Statistically, Donnacha Ryan is now among the best rugby coaches in the world.
The quietly spoken Nenagh man is in just his second year as a coach, after a glittering playing career, and now has a second European Champions Cup title on his CV after La Rochelle’s incredible comeback win over Leinster in the final at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
The French side came from 17-0 down after just twelve minutes to go back to back as champions with Ryan as forwards coach of a side that wore Leinster down up front in the second half.
“It’s a cliché, but it was probably a game of two halves,” he said, speaking to Off The Ball afterwards.
“17-nil down, we didn’t have much ball and were down a yellow card, but the lads showed massive character in the first half to hang in there.
“James Ryan getting injured in the first half, he is a massive character for them, and we hammered that point home at half time that it is going to take until the last fifteen minutes to win it and it did.”
After retiring from playing in 2021, Ryan was immediately drafted into the La Rochelle coaching staff by his former Munster team-mate Ronan O’Gara who was glowing in his praise of Donnacha’s simple, yet important impact on the club as a whole.
“The big learnings from my playing days and coaching is, you get good people in the building first and then you work on their competence,” O’Gara said.
“You know how deep Skin (Donnacha’s nickname) is, but he has the heart of gold. At the start he wanted a bit of a PHD in lineouts, but I said, Skin, just win the ball, I can launch a few attacks, just win the ball.
“So Skin, can you believe he has been coaching for two years and has two European Cup medals, the most performing coach in the world.”
It is a terrific start to a coaching career for Donnacha Ryan who is loving life in France after four years as a player with Racing 92 between 2017 and 2021, before taking up coaching.
“I wanted a new experience,” he said of staying in rugby by becoming a coach.
“Every day I am learning, learning from the boys, learning French every day of the week, and that is a good thing as it humbled you massively. I have to be organised and have to make my message very simple. Obviously, my Tipperary accent gets in the way of that,” he joked, adding “but it gets me out of my comfort zone.
“But it is a collective thing. ROG (Ronan O’Gara) is so honest to the boys. He puts a piece of himself to the boys and they love that. The connection is that we cares massively about them. A few weeks ago, we had a training session planned and instead he decided to take the boys surfing for the day.
“Because we spend so much time together, it is about creating moments with one another, and he just works so hard. It is a seven day gig, but it isn’t really a gig, it is a passion. It is for moments like these, and the boys won’t forget this.”