While Ronan O’Gara has done remarkably well to thrive, yet alone survive, in the cut-throat world of French club rugby, he’s a fairly rare case.
The Top 14 is littered with coaches who’ve bitten the dust, especially those from outside France.
In contrast to O’Gara and others, Jeremy Davidson receives relatively scant recognition for his work over 18 seasons as a coach, all but two of which have been in French club rugby, and the last seven of which have been as a head coach in the Top 14.
This is his third season, and second full campaign, with his former club Castres, with whom the former Ulster and London Irish lock played for three seasons (1998-2001), as well as winning 32 Ireland caps and playing three Tests for the Lions.
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Having been hired in February 2022, Davidson guided Castres to safety and then to the heights of seventh place last season. The club only missed out on the playoffs when Racing secured a bonus point in the last minute away to La Rochelle on the final day of the regular season.
Castres’ set-piece stats have improved again this season and they have won six home games, including the prized scalp of their near neighbours and big brothers from Toulouse, and with the 12th biggest budget in the Top 14 they sit seventh.
Despite this, the word on the grapevine is that Davidson will be one of the casualties at the end of the season and that his agent is already looking around elsewhere.
In advance of Castres hosting Munster on Friday night, Davidson himself declined to discuss these rumours, saying: “I just want to concentrate on my job”.
It’s hard to believe there won’t be offers for him. After cutting his teeth for two seasons apiece at both Castres and Ulster before he and Mark McCall parted ways with their native province, Davidson helped little Aurillac punch above its weight for six seasons as head coach in the ProD2.
After one season as an assistant coach with Bordeaux/Begles, Davidson took over at Brive, winning promotion from ProD2 and keeping them up for three seasons before his rescue operation at Castres.
The club won their fifth Bouclier de Brennus seven seasons ago and regularly compete in their domestic playoffs. But last week’s loss in Northampton was their ninth in a row and Castres have made 14 pool exits since their sole knock-out appearance, when losing to Munster in the semi-finals in 2002.
Castres are winless away this season, but have won all six home games.
“Determination and team spirit are Castres’ identity, and that’s why we have won at home,” says Davidson. “Away there have been some good performances but we just haven’t been able to get over the line. It’s hard to win away in France, due to home identity and crowd pressure.”
So how does he explain his longevity and durability in the volatile world of French rugby.
“I think I get French rugby more than most people,” he explains. “When I was younger, I studied French in university. I moved to Castres and became their first foreign captain in my second season here. I bought into the Castres identity and I loved playing for the club.
“I wouldn’t say I’m the flippin’ smartest person in the world but I would say I observe an awful lot. I think I realised early on in my coaching career, you can take a horse to water but you can’t make him French.
“So, you’ve got to make things better for French people first off, get them on board and then start to develop your culture, how you keep things working, how you want to develop your team on a slightly slower basis than you would in an Anglo-Saxon environment where you’re possibly a wee bit harder on technical things, probably a wee bit more precise on patterns and the way you want to play.
“I suppose I haven’t tried to rush things. There’s not many people that go to Aurillac and places like that. Not everybody was jumping to get the Brive job when they got relegated. I think you’ve got to have humility and try to build your innings when you’re here. That’s possibly how I explain having a longer career than most foreign coaches in France.”
In addition to those studies, having spent nearly 20 years in total living and working in France he’s almost as much French as Irish; helpfully too he has a good mastery of the language by now, especially in a rugby environment.
“I can speak with anybody. I listen to French all day long and I think my level of French is better than most people from outside the country who live here, and I suppose determination as well.
“Whenever you get knocked down you have to fight hard to get back on your feet and stand up again. It’s possibly to prove people wrong as well who have put you down in the past.
“Brive is the only time I’ve been sacked in my coaching career, however I was let go by Ulster years ago with ‘Smally’ [McCall]. Every time you change club you have to ask questions of yourself. I know as a coach I’ve developed from that.
“Finally, and this might sound weird, I’m getting pretty old now,” quips the 50-year-old. “But I do feel I know a lot more about the game than I ever did. It’s scary how belligerent I was as a player, now knowing the whole game, not knowing why you’re doing things, possibly being quite good in my position but it would have been a lot easier if I’d known the game a bit more.”
Whatever about being ‘old’, per se, with age does come wisdom.
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