Ronan O'Gara: One in the eye for the agents provocateurs?

For years I was easy bait. Then there was a stage where I settled the head and the heart-rate and understood the game the opposition was trying to play. And you end up telling yourself ‘don’t bite’ a helluva lot, writes Ronan O'Gara.

TAKE THAT: France’s Mohammed Haouas punches Scotland’s Jamie Ritchie in last weekend’s Six Nations clash at Murrayfield. Only the prop himself knows whether he was baited or whether it was a mad rush of blood. Picture: David Rogers/Getty Images

Montpellier prop Mohamed Haouas copped a three-week ban this week for landing a haymaker flush on Scottish flanker Jamie Ritchie’s nose last Sunday at Murrayfield.