Ireland’s 19-18 win over Scotland, their third Triple Crown triumph, in four years was overshadowed on Saturday by a row over an alleged choking assault on flyhalf Ronan O’Gara.
Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan claimed after the match that an unidentified Scots player had left O’Gara blue in the face and close to losing consciousness by deliberately blocking his windpipe at the bottom of a ruck within a minute of the end of the match.
The allegation was denied by a spokesperson for the Scottish Rugby Union, who insisted: ”We refute absolutely any allegation of any foul play at the end of the game.”
O’Gara’s teammates called medical staff after he failed to get up from the ruck and his breathing quickly returned to normal.
Asked what had happened, O’Sullivan said: ”I think there was an incident on the ground where, I’d say, someone tried to choke him. He had his arm round his neck and cut off his air supply and he went blue.”
O’Sullivan said he did not want to identify the Scottish player he believed to have been involved and said Ireland would not be pursuing the matter as the incident had not been caught by television cameras.
”When there is no evidence on the television, unless the guy puts up his hand nothing is going to happen,” O’Sullivan said.
The Irish coach admitted he had not been able to see what was allegedly happening in the ruck, but made it clear he felt the Scottish player had acted maliciously.
”If you put a hand round the guy’s neck and choke him, it is hard to happen by accident isn’t it.
”Some of the players saw it and when the ruck broke up, Rog [O’Gara] had gone blue in the face and he was losing consciousness at that stage. It was an unfortunate incident but it happened.”
Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll said O’Gara had been left badly shaken.
”It is not a nice situation to find yourself in. Only once have I found myself vulnerable on a rugby pitch. When you feel helpless it is not a nice feeling, so I’m sure he would as soon forget it.”
Ireland needed two late penalties to secure their one-point victory having failed to take the chances they enjoyed in the first half and at the start of the second, when Scotland were a man down following the sin-binning of forward Nathan Hines.
O’Sullivan, however, paid tribute to his side’s resilience in ensuring they delivered the victory that had been regarded as a foregone conclusion after the record defeat of England in Dublin two weeks ago.
”The game was always going to be a dogfight,” O’Sullivan said.
”The hooplah in the media was complete nonsense, but we never bought into that and having that [mindset] was very important.”
”After losing to Italy two weeks ago, Scotland needed to put in a big performance and I thought this was probably their best performance of the tournament. They defended very well.
”I’m not over the moon about our performance but we still came out at the right end with a result.”
Scotland coach Frank Hadden could find little consolation in the narrow margin of defeat, insisting that ”means nothing” to him or his squad.
”Ireland were there for the beating today [Saturday] and we did not start well enough nor perform with enough accuracy or precision at any stage to get a grip on the game,” Hadden said.
”It was sort of game when scoreline was going to be going back and forth and you just were not too sure who was going to be in front when the final whistle goes. If we had been in front at the end we would have accepted it but we would still have been disappointed with the performance.”
After the optimism generated by last season’s home wins over France and England, the Scots will travel to Paris next week as favourites to end up with the tournament wooden spoon.
Hadden said: ”This was a hugely missed opportunity against second best team in the world. We have got one opportunity now to put it right, to prove to everyone that we have got a quality side and that is in Paris next week and we are determined to take that.” — Sapa-AFP