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21st March 2019
10:55pm GMT
O'Gara has been quite outspoken of French rugby's pitfalls and compared some stark differences between French rugby culture and what he experienced during his time in Ireland when speaking to The Hard Yards podcast last year.
"In France, if you sign a player and he becomes overweight it becomes acceptable. If that was in Ireland you would have the senior players in that club doing fitness with him, getting the best out of him, managing his lifestyle to make sure he drops the weight. "In France it’s just viewed upon as acceptable, it’s a small thing but yet it’s a massive thing because you could have a player that is 10 kg overweight punishing the team but isn’t too driven to shift the weight. "What happened in Ireland would be that he would absolutely train hard, live well, eat well, he’d get a six week window period if he’s playing ball with his teammates the lads will do everything for him but if he’s taking the piss out of them he’ll be dropped and he’ll be sent home. "I just think that the value in Irish rugby are only seen when you leave it. When you’re there you think it’s really tough and it’s hard being an impact sub but it is an unbelievable squad environment. "Obviously, I’d be friendly with a lot of Leinster guys but in Munster, in Irish camp, I think it’s something we as Irish people are very good at. "I think we’re unbelievably hard working and driven and you look in France and that’s the great thing about the great reasons about staying here, you have the New Zealand culture, the Australian culture, the South African culture, the Georgian culture, the Fijian culture, the Anglo Saxon culture, the Argentinian culture so you get to see everything and after four years you get to see the mental side of it too and I just think there’s great learnings in that regard to sometimes as Irish we don’t back ourselves enough."
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