{"id":407130,"date":"2026-02-04T09:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407130\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T09:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:43:09","slug":"wales-leave-ronan-ogara-in-state-of-disbelief-as-he-apologies-for-any-offence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407130\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales leave Ronan O’Gara in ‘state of disbelief’ as he apologies for any offence"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Six Nations pundit O’Gara is struggling to get his head around what has happened to Wales\"Ronan<\/p>\n

Ronan O’Gara meant no offence to Wales(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

Ireland legend Ronan O’Gara insists he meant “no offence” to Wales when he said he’d have no interest in coaching them, revealing he has been left stunned by Welsh rugby’s demise over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

O’Gara was asked about potentially going for his first job in Test rugby as Warren Gatland’s tenure edged towards its end, but dismissed the idea, saying: “I haven’t thought about that, to be honest with you. Without lacking humility, I would prefer Ireland, England or France.<\/p>\n

“You have got to have those ambitions, I think, because you want to be the best you can be.”<\/p>\n

JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE! Latest news, analysis and much more<\/a><\/p>\n

In a new interview with the BBC<\/a> ahead of the Six Nations, O’Gara clarified his previous comments and gave his views on Wales’ issues. The Ireland great, who will be a pundit for ITV<\/a> and the BBC during this year’s tournament, insisted rugby needs Wales to return to their previous standards.<\/p>\n

Asked about dismissing the notion of coaching Wales, he said: “I felt, whether I’m right or wrong, that I would prefer to coach Ireland and, if you look as a professional coach, the opportunity with England, would be a better job. That’s from a selfish point of view, but if I created offence to anyone in Wales, it wasn’t my intention.<\/p>\n

“That’s important, because I like what the Welsh people stand for and as a fella who loves the game, it’s not good to see where Wales rugby is at the minute.<\/p>\n

“Everyone needs to make an effort to get them back, because Wales not being competitive, there’s a massive piece of everyone’s heart missing. The game needs Wales, it’s so important. The memories of the best singers, the best atmosphere, going back to the 1970s, the best team to play the game.<\/p>\n

“Now, I don’t want them to win the Six Nations<\/a> and be that good, but…there are so many good people who have come through the game in Wales that there needs to be a plan made to get them at least competitive.<\/p>\n

“I genuinely think, even myself included, that there’s a state of disbelief. I actually think we’re in a bit of a trance and people are going ‘is this actually happening?’. Because we’re so preoccupied with what we’re doing – and that’s only a natural thing for people because I’m coaching here, this is my business and I’m unbelievably focused on this – you get a Saturday off for a Six Nations and you go and see Wales and you go ‘is that where Wales are at?’.<\/p>\n

“If they’re competitive, perfect. If they’re not – and one or two games I saw, they were off the pace or not at the races – I think that hurts anyone who loves the game. When you give, you should get back and Wales have given so much. I certainly hope that in five years’ time, they’ll be far more threatening than they are nowadays.<\/p>\n

“There was something I learnt after the first European Cup final, Northampton 2000, O’Gara with zero out of five kicks at goal. You can look in the mirror and you can go ‘I have a problem’ or you can sweep it under the carpet.<\/p>\n

“If you sweep it under the carpet and put little plasters on, you’re going to be in the same situation in five years’ time.<\/p>\n

“I think what you need to do is a SWOT analysis, keep it simple and clear and get to the bottom. I genuinely think with the amount of good people associated with the game, that solutions are more evident than you think.”<\/p>\n

Wales head into this year’s tournament looking to avoid a third consecutive wooden spoon. They begin with a difficult away trip to face England on Saturday, before hosting tournament favourites France the following weekend.<\/p>\n

Next up is Scotland in Cardiff<\/a> before a trip to Ireland and a final home game against Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Six Nations pundit O’Gara is struggling to get his head around what has happened to Wales Ronan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,43326,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-407130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}