By Ben James

Copyright walesonline

Here are your rugby evening headlines for Sunday, October 5. Scotland international Jack Dempsey has opened up on the loss of defence coach Steve Tandy, after he left his role with the Scottish Rugby Union to become Wales’ new head coach. Tandy left Gregor Townsend’s coaching staff this summer, replacing Warren Gatland as Wales boss ahead of the upcoming autumn campaign. With Wales having only just ended an 18-Test losing run, the new job is undoubtedly a tough one for Tandy, but the move is also a loss for Scotland. Townsend’s task of making the most out of a generational group of players will be that little bit more difficult without Tandy running the rule over the defence. That has seen some question whether it would have been wise to change the rest of Scotland’s coaching staff, with Glasgow coach Franco Smith having been linked with replacing Townsend. However, with Townsend having signed a new deal, Scotland No. 8 Dempsey admitted that it’s time for the players to deliver – adding that further changes after Tandy’s departure wouldn’t help. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby. “I think it’s more on the players than anyone else in terms of delivering what we obviously need to deliver,” he told Scotland Rugby News . “And we’ve talked about it the last couple of campaigns. “But it’s always the chicken or the egg, isn’t it? It’s like, what, you just let everyone go or we lose Tandy, you’re like, oh, you might as well get everyone removed and then bring someone else in. “And where are we? From what I’ve seen, my own personal opinion is, I don’t think there’s any staff changes that would change anything right now. I think it’s all on the players and I do believe that. “At the end of the day, if we’re judged by Six Nations in the World Cup, then we’re going to know in the next 18 months, two years, won’t we? And then changes will happen. But I think it’s a smart decision on both ends.” Dempsey added that Scotland’s consistency in coaching in recent years, as opposed to Wales, has stood them in good stead – believing Tandy getting time with Wales will only help Welsh rugby moving forward. “But I think it’s more to do with the consistency of the players performing than it is any other factor,” he added. “I look at Wales now and just keep chopping and changing coaches and bringing back old coaches and doing all that. “I think now they’re going to go on a run now where they’re going to put Tandy in for a long time. A guy who I know personally, very switched on, very hard, very tactical and very smart. “Like that’s really what it comes down to. I think the thing about professional sports, whatever sport you’re playing in, is consistency.” La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara admits that performances like Saturday’s Top 14 defeat to Montpellier cause him to question himself. O’Gara had previously stated at the beginning of the season that if the club hadn’t won the Champions Cup twice already during his tenure, he would have been given the boot based on last season’s performances, when they didn’t make the play-offs. Now, following a 37-13 loss at Montepellier, ex-Munster and Ireland star O’Gara is once again self-reflecting as he lambasted a ‘shameful’ performance. “We didn’t play well in the second half,” the Cork native admitted. “We weren’t precise, we made mistakes – it was so stupid. It was an unacceptable performance and hugely frustrating. It’s moments like these that make me wonder why I do this job. “We were doing well, we were dictating the tempo even though we struggled in the scrum. But after that, we missed tackles, one-on-ones; Kane Douglas had to come off and, away from home, that eats at your confidence. “We tried to get back into the game but we shot ourselves in the foot. We were absent. I have to take a lot of responsibility. What are we going to do from Monday to Friday? This week, we were strong on Tuesday and Thursday, and when you see this match, it’s shameful for me and for the supporters. “There are urgent things to work on to win back, I hope, a minimum of respect – because today we lost a lot of respect and credibility. We were weak in many areas. We are far from a great Stade Rochelais team, that’s obvious.” Munster coach Clayton McMillan said he was “kind of” happy following Munster’s United Rugby Championship win over Cardiff . The Irish province edged out the Blue and Blacks 23-20 on Saturday evening. “Kind of…happy to get the result,” McMillan told TG4 afterwards. “I don’t think we had quite the same edge about us as we had last week so that’s a good learning for me and the team. “We came out of the sheds and they were quicker to the punch, especially the first 40 minutes but we found a way so that’s positive.” Cardiff haven’t won in 11 previous outings at Thomond Park and hadn’t tasted victory in Ireland since 2017, with McMillan admitting Corniel van Zyl’s side caused them plenty of problems. “It’s hard to follow any plan if you are not winning collisions,” added the Munster head coach. “It’s a combative game, it starts with set-piece and your ability to impose yourself physically in the collision space. “That’s where Cardiff were particularly strong, carried with a little bit more venom, strong over the ball defensively at breakdown and made us work hard for everything.”