Stuart Lancaster can appreciate better than most just how far Ronan O’Gara has climbed up the coaching ladder.

And that extends to the unfamiliar and daunting path he has forged as a northern hemisphere coach working in New Zealand’s rugby heartland.

A keen traveller himself, the former England coach packed his bags after his time as an RFU employee came to an end and visited a plethora of places in a bid to deepen his knowledge. Among his stopovers was a spell with Counties Manukau.

The Yorkshireman gave an interview at the time admitting that he was in the market for a job and that a Super Rugby role was among the positions that would interest him. It never happened. It was during that spell when Leinster first made contact.

Eighteen months later and O’Gara was landing in Christchurch on the back of a reference from Dan Carter at Racing 92 and starting in to a season that would end with Scott Robertson’s side claiming the Super Rugby title.

“I was delighted for him to achieve the success he did with Crusaders because I thought it was an incredibly brave move. I was fortunate to get an opportunity to coach Counties Manakau in the Mitre10 Cup and I know how much I benefited from that experience.

“He was given the opportunity, which is very rare in New Zealand rugby, to get a northern hemisphere coach to be granted that opportunity because their coaching development programme dictates that they are a very New Zealand-first model.”

“Probably Dan Carter’s reference helped push him through the door but for him to then uproot and leave France and his family and go live in Christchurch was a very brave decision that has ultimately paid off for him.

“He has probably learned more in six months than he would have done in any other environment. I have met him a few times and I am lucky that we built a relationship when he was at Racing and I actually did a bit of consultancy there.

“So, hopefully I will catch up with at some point and find out what he has learned.”

Earning a shot in New Zealand rugby is one thing, staying there another, but O’Gara did enough in his first six months for an extension to be announced into the 2019 season and Robertson has hailed the “new perspective” brought to the club by the Munster man.

The former Ireland and Lions 10 was struck by the down-to-earth nature of the surroundings at the Crusaders’ training base on his arrival early this year and Lancaster’s recollections of his time with a “humble” Counties echoes that.

“It reminded me very much of my club team back home and no flash facilities, no flash gym, no flash training pitches, anything like that. There was a lot of Super Rugby players coming back in along with the club players.

“I remember walking into their training camp and it was Daryl (Suasua), the head coach at the time had said I was coming, and I don’t think anyone believed it. Then in I walked and people were like, ‘jeez, that’s the England coach’.

“But they were great. One of the things I have seen around Super Rugby is the evolution of defence... I think the Lions series probably showed the New Zealanders there are other ways to defend than their existing ways. That’s what I tried to bring to Counties.”

Lancaster won’t be trying to join O’Gara down there any time soon.

Linked time and again with vacant roles in the English game, he has resurrected his coaching career at Leinster with fellow coaches and players lauding his input at a club which ended the last season as Champions Cup and Guinness PRO14 champions.

There have been no advances made of late, he said. He’s settled in his work in Dublin, and in the routine of commuting over and back from Leeds-Bradford Airport.

“My wife lives in Leeds, my daughter (Sophie) got her ‘A’ Levels on Thursday. She’s going to university in (three) weeks’ time. My son’s just about to sign his first academy contract (with Yorkshire Carnegie), he’s 17 going on 18.

“There are big things going on and I want to be around for them.

“It’s all well and good having the romantic notion of coaching in the southern hemisphere, but it’s not much use if you’re kids are at uni and you can’t get to see them. That’s part of the equation people forget.”