Cheika may face €2,000 fine for RDS touchline outburst

LEINSTER coach Michael Cheika faces a hefty IRFU fine following a touchline incident in the New Year’s Eve Celtic League clash with Munster at the RDS, it has emerged.

Cheika is alleged to have abused one or more match officials and was reported to the Irish Rugby Football Union.

It is understood Cheika could be hit with a fine or forced to make a donation to the injured players’ fund of anything up to €2,000 when an internal inquiry is completed in the next week.

Sources claim Cheika encroached on the sideline and abused officials, whom he believed delayed the introduction of Leinster substitutes.

Meanwhile, Cheika’s assistant David Knox could also find himself in trouble for allegedly making derogatory comments to Bath supporters at Sunday’s Heineken Cup game at the Recreation Ground.

Publicly, though, the duo can do no wrong at the moment, having guided Leinster into the last eight of the Heineken Cup by plotting a smashing victory over Bath on Sunday. It secured an away game against Toulouse and also helped Munster claim a home quarter-final tie with Perpignan.

After that dramatic win, Leinster face a Celtic League tie against Borders at Donnybrook on Friday.

Cameron Jowitt has been ruled out with a fractured cheek bone and will be out of action for up to six weeks.

Leinster will also be without their senior Irish internationals but Felipe Contepomi and Will Green should be fit. In addition, Ciaran Potts is back, as is Brian O’Meara, who starred for Lansdowne in an AIB fixture against Blackrock at the weekend.

Cheika also awaits news as to whether any other players, possibly Ross Kearney and Graham Heaslip, will be released from an extended Irish squad of 35 by tomorrow.

Munster meet Gwent Dragons in the Celtic League on Saturday evening. There are no serious injuries after their win at Thomond Park on Saturday, but they too await news from the national camp before finalising a squad for this particular game.

Meanwhile Ireland back-row Eric Miller has announced his retirement from international rugby. The Leinster player, aged 31 in March, will see out his current contract with Leinster until the end of this season, at which time he will retire from all rugby.

Miller won 48 Irish caps, playing in two World Cups, and was selected for the Lions tour to South Africa in 1997.