Ronan O’Gara has poured cold water on the idea of him becoming the next Munster Director or Rugby.

With the Lions were making headlines down in New Zealand and the Irish rugby team was playing fixtures against the U.S.A and Japan, Munster Rugby were facing into a search for a new head coach.

With all this going on, Ronan O’Gara was cutting his international coaching teeth with Ireland on their summer tour having been brought in by Joe Schmidt. With Erasmus’ exit looming, Munster would like to get their coaching team sorted sooner rather than later and the former out half was amongst one of the early favourites with the bookies.

However the Munster legend – who is about to start his fifth season with French giants Racing Metro – has said the time isn’t quite right to return to his home province. Speaking on the SportsJoe.ie podcast, O’Gara said

“It’s getting exciting there now because obviously we have so much to prove. Winning [the Top 14] in the Nou Camp has been long forgotten at this stage. Last season, with a four-day preseason and playing on the fifth day, you could understand why we didn’t function – our form in Europe has to improve – but we still got to the semi final, beaten by Clermont, and our spirit was good…

“But I am enjoying it and, in relation to Munster, it would obviously be something I’d be really interested in but the timing is nowhere near right.”

While a lot of Munster fans would love to see one of their favourite sons return, O’Gara is all too aware of the pressures of the role and one can understand why he would want to come back at a time when he feels he would be most able to give his best to the job.

For now it seems like O’Gara’s only return to Munster will be next year with Donnacha Ryan in tow as Racing Metro will be looking to avenge last year’s defeat in the Champions Cup defeat.