Despite two thrilling inter-pro derbies from the Irish provinces at the weekend, not everyone thinks the Pro 14 is competitive in its current form. 

Speaking on Monday's OTB AM , La Rochelle coach Ronan O'Gara said that the Top 14 and Gallagher Premiership offer a different kind of challenge for teams.

"What the Irish model looks like now is you get ready for the European Cup and you get your tests players ready.

"The Pro 14 without the relegation, it seems a little bit surreal that you have a game in the worst conditions of the year and you have one team scoring 54 and the other scoring 42.

"I don't think the Irish mentality knows what relegation is like," O'Gara stated.

The former Munster man feels that with all of the replacements playing during the inter-pros, it devalues the league. It's very different from how it is in England and France.

"The English Premiership and the French Top 14 are both a grind but they're two brilliant competitions to be involved in because every game matters.

"In that [Pro 14] competition all the people will say the games matter, but for me they don't.

Photo by Romain Biard/Sportsfile

European league 

"You have players for European games and for Test matches, everyone else fills in around those games then," the former Munster fly-half said

For O'Gara, he doesn't think there is enough at risk for teams in the Pro 14 compared to other European leagues.

"It is not going to be a real league unless there is relegation, like what are the teams playing for?

"How many teams are actually playing to win it? There is Leinster, there is Munster and potentially Glasgow on a good day," O'Gara said.

In his eyes, the way forward could be for the Pro 14 to merge with another league so there is relegation. When asked if he thought a Pro 14-Premiership would work, he agreed.

"Yeah, I think it would be brilliant and even with the capacity now with chartered flights you could even make a European league," the former outhalf said.

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