Ronan
O'Gara

Ronan O'Gara is a giant of Irish rugby. Discover everything about this legendary fly-half with RugbyPass, your resident rugby gurus.

Ronan O'Gara Bio

Ronan O'Gara is a legend of Irish rugby who is Ireland’s second most-capped player and their highest ever point scorer. In addition, he’s also Munster’s all-time leading scorer and he holds the Heineken Cup record for points and caps. Today, he’s the head coach of La Rochelle in the French Top 14.

Born 7 March 1977, Ronan O'Gara began playing rugby at school. While at Presentation Brothers College in Cork, he met Declan Kidney, who was the school’s head of rugby. Later, Kidney would coach Ronan O'Gara at both Munster and Ireland.

Ronan O'Gara made his Munster debut in 1997, a year after he finished university. Between then and 2013, he made 240 appearances for the club, scoring a whopping 2,625 points from fly-half. During this time, he won the Heineken Champions Cup twice, the PRO14 (then the Celtic League and the Magners League) three times and the Celtic Cup once.

Thanks to his stellar performances for Munster, Ronan O'Gara received his first call-up for Ireland in 2000. This would prove to be the start of a long and illustrious international career. Between 2000 and 2013, Ronan O'Gara was capped 128 times for Ireland and scored more than 1,000 points. During this time, he won the Six Nations Grand Slam with Ireland in 2009.

On top of this, during his distinguished career, Ronan O'Gara was selected for three British and Irish Lions tours. On these tours, he was capped twice. In May 2013, Ronan O'Gara announced his retirement from all forms of rugby. Since, he’s been inducted into the IRUPA Hall of Fame and the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He’s also been awarded the freedom of Cork City.

As soon as he retired from the sport, Ronan O'Gara moved into coaching. Between 2013 and 2017, he was the defence coach for Racing 92. From here, he moved to Crusaders as an assistant coach from 2018 to 2019. Since 2019, he’s been the head coach of La Rochelle.