Cheika hopes he can count on O’Kelly

MICHAEL CHEIKA remains upbeat about Malcolm O’Kelly’s chances of escaping further censure for the stamp on Phil Vickery last week, an act which is threatening the player’s participation in Sunday’s final Heineken Cup group game against Edinburgh.

The vastly experienced lock was yellow carded by Christophe Berdos for the incident during the first-half of Saturday’s game against Wasps in Twickenham and will be explaining his actions to an ERC disciplinary panel tonight.

Should O’Kelly receive a ban, an appeal would be unlikely before Sunday given the short time-span involved.