Joe Schmidt is eager to put Ronan O’Gara "to work" when the Racing 92 coach heads off with the Ireland team to the USA this summer.
The former Munster out-half is in this fourth season as an assistant coach at the Top 14 champions and has been added to the Ireland management team for a short stint in June ahead of a Test against the Eagles in New Jersey.
The 40-year-old will be joined by Leinster’s Girvan Dempsey and Munster’s Felix Jones as the former Ireland full-backs also dip their toes into the international coaching water.
"I’ve had a lot of conversations with Ronan over the years, and especially with him being in France and my experiences over there," Schmidt, a former Clermont coach, told RTÉ Sport in an interview on Radio 1’s Sunday Sport this afternoon.
"We conversed often on what’s happening over there and a little bit of what’s happening here.
"He’s indicated that he’s keen to get into the environment just to get a bit of a look so we’re going to put him to work and he’s going to do some skills-coach work with us.
"Girvan Dempsey, who is I think, growing in confidence all the time in his role in Leinster, and the same with Felix Jones who has made a really positive impression under Rassie Erasmus and Munster.
"I think they are three outstanding young men who have fantastic potential to be coaching in this country and we want to try and get the best out of them on tour.
"[We want] to give them all an opportunity so they are overlapping for the best past of eight to ten days the first one [O’Gara] and nine days for the other two.
"I’m really looking forward to working with them. I’ve obviously worked with Girv before and I’ve worked with Felix in a coach-player relationship. He was superb to coach as a player.
"I’ve known Ronan for a long time. They’ll add a bit of a spark to the coaching group."
O'Gara has previously spoken of his upcoming role with the national side.
He said: "Basically the role will be skills and hopefully working with the young number 10s.
"Depending on who goes it could be a number of young players and as you know it's a position you get better with age.
"It's important that their basic skills are good, especially their confidence levels are good. Hopefully I can pass on one or two learning tools and get to work with everybody."
