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O'Gara banned and fined at the first of two disciplinary hearings
By Liam Heagney
La Rochelle boss Ronan O'Gara has been banned from matchday coaching duties for the upcoming two-legged Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 tie with Bordeaux. The ex-Ireland international was called before a Ligue Nationale de Rugby disciplinary hearing regarding the allegation of contesting the decision of the match officials during the recent Top 14 win over Racing 92, his former club.
O'Gara was found responsible for the alleged indiscipline and now won't have a hands-on matchday role for the away-and-home European clashes versus Bordeaux, starting next Saturday.
An LNR statement read: "Ronan O'Gara was found responsible for 'indiscipline' and in particular for 'contesting the decisions of match officials. Consequently, taking into account in particular the disciplinary record of O'Gara, he was sanctioned with a two-week suspension and a €1,000 fine.
"This penalty has the effect of revoking the fine of €1,000 accompanied by the suspended sentence imposed by the commission on November 3, 2021, against O'Gara. Consequently, given the schedule of La Rochelle matches on April 6, O'Gara will be re-qualified on April 17.
"Under article 65 of the LNR's general regulations, La Rochelle were fined €10,000, including €5,000 with a fully suspended sentence."
The worrying thing for O'Gara is that he will come before the disciplinary committee again next Wednesday to answer a charge arising from last Saturday night's events in the La Rochelle Top 14 league match at Bordeaux. The LNR statement at Tuesday outlining that he will have a hearing on April 13 read: “At the end of the meeting between Bordeaux and La Rochelle, the citing commissioner, as well as the referees number four and number five, reported the behaviour of O’Gara, the La Rochelle coach.
“The situation in question is likely to constitute an infringement of the general regulations of the LNR and the FFR. O’Gara and the La Rochelle club are summoned before the disciplinary and rules committee at its meeting on Wednesday, April 13."
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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