The extension was never in doubt and the Leinster angle has been done. What nobody has mapped is who plays for him in year five, when Botia is 42, Skelton is 39 and Alldritt is 34.
Ronan O’Gara will be 54 when the contract he signed on Monday runs out. Levani Botia, who arrived at La Rochelle five years before him, will be 42.
The Ronan O’Gara contract now runs to June 2031. One line of the club statement is the whole brief.
“We have already built a lot, but I am convinced that the best is ahead of us. I want to keep growing this team and winning with Stade Rochelais.”
Ronan O’Gara, in the club’s announcement, Monday 14 September 2026. Translated from the original French.
He arrived in 2019 and has run the professional team since 2021. Four more seasons on top of this one. The question that decides whether he is right about the best being ahead is a list of birthdays.
Which position worries you most? Say so in the comments, then read on.
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The Ronan O’Gara contract runs to 2031. Twelve of his players will be 34 or older by then
The 2026-27 squad, sorted by the only number that matters for a five-year deal.
| Player | Position | Age now | Age in June 2031 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Levani Botia | Flanker | 37 | 42 |
| George Moala | Centre | 35 | 40 |
| Will Skelton | Lock | 34 | 39 |
| Dillyn Leyds | Wing | 34 | 38 |
| Jonathan Danty | Centre | 33 | 38 |
| Tolu Latu | Hooker | 33 | 38 |
| Jack Nowell | Wing | 33 | 38 |
| Ulupano Seuteni | Centre | 32 | 37 |
| Quentin Lespiaucq-Brettes | Hooker | 31 | 36 |
| Christophe Loustalot | Scrum-half | 34 | 39 |
| Theo McFarland | Back row | 30 | 35 |
| Grégory Alldritt | No.8, captain | 29 | 34 |
Source: club squad list with dates of birth, checked 16 September 2026. Ages as of today.
Botia and Skelton have been the two best signings in the club’s history and neither is being asked to play 25 games. The point is that a five-year plan cannot be built on any of them.
Uini Atonio is the reminder of how fast that changes. He had made more than 300 appearances for the club until a cardiac incident in the warm-up before Clermont in January ended his career at 35. He now coaches the scrum. He has seven props to coach, and their average age is 22.8.
Position by position: every shirt O’Gara has to refill by 2031
Prop. Reda Wardi, Joel Sclavi and Atonio all gone in one summer. The replacements are Sione Ahio, 25, from the Chiefs, Nathan Fraissenon, 24, from Brive, and a group of academy props between 18 and 23.
“Rebuilding it with players who, for the most part, are not yet 24 is the most exposed bet the club is making this year.”
RugbyPass France on La Rochelle’s front row, September 2026. Translated from the original French.
The scrum that won two European titles is being rebuilt from Pro D2 and Super Rugby in a single window.
Hooker. Pierre Bourgarit is 29 and the starter until 2031 if his body holds. Behind him Latu is 33, Lespiaucq-Brettes 31, and the succession is Gabin Garault, 20, and Nika Sutidze, 23. This is the position where the club has done its work.
Lock. Skelton is the one everybody names, and Salmaan Moerat, 28, from the Stormers is the obvious inheritor of the enforcer role. Thomas Lavault, 27, is the continuity. Thomas Adélaïde, 23, from Colomiers is the bet.
Back row. The healthiest unit in the club. Alldritt at 29, with Sam Tuifua, 24, signed from Mont-de-Marsan to take minutes off him. Oscar Jégou, 23, and Paul Boudehent, 26, both on France’s protected list. Botia’s role, the man who hits everything, passes to Jégou whether anyone says so or not.
Half-backs. Nolann Le Garrec, 24, was signed from Racing last year to be the 9 for the length of this deal. Behind him sit Thomas Berjon, 28, and Christophe Loustalot, 34, signed from Mont-de-Marsan as injury cover.
Then Valentin Bouju, 18, who made his debut at Toulon on Saturday and was named man of the match. At 10, Antoine Hastoy is 29 and Ben Healy, 27, from Edinburgh replaces Ihaia West. The academy 10s are 19 and 20. This is the position where O’Gara, of all coaches, will be judged.
Midfield. Danty at 33, Moala at 35 and Seuteni at 32 are three over-30s in one unit. David Kriel, 27, from the Bulls is the only inheritor with Test-level experience. The academy centres are 19 to 23.
Back three. Leyds and Nowell are 34 and 33. Davit Niniashvili, 24, and Hoani Bosmorin, 21, are the future, and the future has already started.
The mechanism O’Gara has to change
La Rochelle’s two European titles were won by a pack that made a 16-phase attack unnecessary. Atonio, Skelton, Botia, Alldritt and Wardi carried into contact and the opposition’s defence bent until it broke. Thornley’s line on Monday was that O’Gara has been overseeing “a transition in personnel and playing style”, towards “an offloading, wide game”.
There is no choice about that. A pack averaging 22.8 at prop cannot win collisions against Toulouse’s, and a midfield of Kriel and Niniashvili does not need it to.
The tell to watch this season is the number of phases La Rochelle keep the ball before kicking. Under Atonio’s pack it was low, because the pack did the damage. If it rises, the rebuild is happening. If the pack goes backwards and the phase count stays low, it is not.
They have started well: a win at home to Toulouse on the opening weekend, then 21-20 at Toulon, where Antoine Hastoy kicked three penalties under a 45-second clock Thomas Ramos says the players were never consulted about.
Eight regular-season wins in a row across two seasons is the platform. It is also the last stretch in which the old pack is fully available.
What the extension does not settle
It settles Leinster first. Gerry Thornley, the Irish Times rugby correspondent, wrote on Monday that the extension closes the door on the job Leo Cullen vacates at the end of the season.
When the paper ran through the likely successors in June it named Noel McNamara, Simon Easterby and Felipe Contepomi alongside O’Gara, and picked no favourite.
The Irish Times said O’Gara has ambitions to coach Ireland one day, and the timing of that has moved. Andy Farrell was open to widening Ireland’s coaching group before 2027 as far back as last December, and the next Ireland appointment after the World Cup falls inside this contract, not after it.
A four-year deal in French club rugby is a statement of intent with a release clause somewhere in it, whatever the club calls it.
For now the obvious reading is the right one. Five children who have been in the French school system for over six years. A club that backed him through two bad winters. A squad that needs rebuilding by the man who built it.
O’Gara said the best is ahead. Whether it is depends on seven props whose average age is 22.8, and on whether Jégou becomes Botia before Botia stops.
Your turn
Two positions. One: O’Gara has two European titles, a back row already rebuilt around Jégou, Boudehent and Alldritt, and four years to do the rest.
Two: ten players over 30, three departed props and an 18-year-old scrum-half on debut is a squad at the end of a cycle. The contract is a bet that the man who built the last one can build the next. Which position should worry La Rochelle most?
Frequently asked
How long is Ronan O’Gara’s new La Rochelle contract? Until June 2031. The club announced on 14 September 2026 that he had signed a four-year extension, keeping him at Stade Rochelais to the end of the 2030-31 season. He arrived in 2019 and has led the professional team since 2021.
Does this rule Ronan O’Gara out of the Leinster job? Yes. The Irish Times reported on 14 September 2026 that the extension closes the door on Leinster, where Leo Cullen leaves at the end of the season after 12 years. The paper’s June shortlist of likely successors named Noel McNamara, Simon Easterby and Felipe Contepomi alongside O’Gara, without naming a favourite. O’Gara is still understood to want to coach Ireland at some point.
Who has La Rochelle signed for 2026-27? Sione Ahio, Nathan Fraissenon, Salmaan Moerat, Theo McFarland, Sam Tuifua, George Moala, David Kriel, Thomas Adélaïde and Christophe Loustalot as injury cover. Reda Wardi, Joel Sclavi, Judicaël Cancoriet and Ihaia West are among the departures, and Uini Atonio retired in January after a cardiac incident.
