O’Gara kick could land him in hot water

Munster could be bracing themselves for a citing against fly-half Ronan O’Gara after he was caught on camera aiming a kick at Edinburgh’s Sean Cox during yesterday’s 26-17 Heineken Cup win at Murrayfield.

O’Gara’s apparent misdemeanour midway through the second half was shown on video replays and screen grabs of the incident — which sparked a brief confrontation between the two sides after second row Cox sought retribution — quickly appeared on social media websites.

Referee Greg Garner took no action but match citing commissioner Alberto Recaldini of Italy has 50 hours from the start of yesterday’s match to submit a complaint to tournament organisers ERC if he deems the incident to have been an act of foul play that would have warranted a red card.

O’Gara’s boot was put to more positive purposes as he kicked four penalties and converted Munster’s two tries, both in the second half by way of a penalty try and Conor Murray. That failed to earn Munster a bonus point that would have edged Rob Penney’s side a point ahead of Leinster heading into the final weekend of pool play as they, and at least Montpellier, battle it out for two of the best runners-up spots that would secure a quarter-final berth.

Montpellier finished round five as the best-placed of the six teams positioned second in their pools on 18 points and face a final match against a Toulon side already safely through.

Munster and Leinster are tied on 15 points each with the Reds facing Racing Metro at Thomond Park on Sunday while the reigning, back-to-back European champions go to Exeter Chiefs on Saturday, meaning Penney’s side will know exactly what they need to do against their French opponents in order to qualify.

Should both sides finish with bonus-point wins and complete the pool stage level on 20 points, Munster currently have the advantage over their inter-provincial rivals in terms of the

subsequent qualifying criteria, tries scored. Munster have scored nine to Leinster’s eight while the following criteria after that sees them with an aggregate points differential of +37 to the champions’ +19.

It should make for yet another intriguing Heineken Cup weekend but the Munster head coach was last night refusing to weigh the possibilities.

“You know the table as well as I,” Penney said. “Who knows until next week, there are so many connotations.”

Leinster coach and fellow New Zealander Joe Schmidt acknowledged his side could do with a Munster slip-up to keep alive their hopes of an unprecedented third title in a row. “Rob Penney’s a great guy. I count Doug Howlett as a friend having coached him for a fair few years but look, it would really help if they could throw that one,” Schmidt said following his side’s bonus-point victory over Scarlets on Saturday night.