Outraged Leinster stunned by decision to clear O’Connell

Joe Schmidt and Leo Cullen have expressed outrage at the failure to cite Paul O’Connell for the incident which resulted in the hospitalisation of Dave Kearney.

Schmidt believes that the game of rugby has been damaged by the decision of Citing Commissioner Eddie Walsh not to pursue the matter while Cullen admitted that his faith in the disciplinary system has been damaged.

Both spoke of what they termed to be the dangerous precedent set by the failure to at least ask the Munster veteran to explain his actions to a disciplinary committee after he made contact with Kearney’s head in an attempt to fly-hack a ball in the second half of the derby. However, RaboDirect PRO12 officials last night confirmed that the competition’s rules and regulations state clearly that there is no means by which O’Connell can now be called to account after the initial 48-hour citing deadline passed.