Ireland co-operate with gouging probe

Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan has given his full co-operation to the Rugby World Cup judiciary investigation into the eye-gouging allegations levelled against Argentina props Mauricio Reggiardio and Roberto Grau.

The pair were both cited by match commissioner Dougie Hunter, without prompting from Ireland, for “acts contrary to good sportsmanship” after the Pumas’ dramatic 16-15 defeat in Adelaide on Sunday.

Tight-head prop Reggiardio stands accused of gouging Reggie Corrigan while Grau was cited for an alleged attack on Ireland skipper Keith Wood.

Both players and Irish team doctor Gary O’Driscoll have provided statements, and O’Sullivan said he would have no qualms in assisting the investigating officials with further information if required.

“After the game I was asked if we were going to pursue it and our first reaction was to leave it alone because at that time Reggie had no apparent damage to the eye,” said O’Sullivan today.

“He is still OK, but a couple of things changed. One is, we hadn’t looked at video at the time and weren’t sure if we had a case, even though we knew there was a problem there.

“Then after the game it emerged there was a second incident and that set alarm bells off for me.

“But before we could even action it, we were contacted by the match commissioner who took the lead on it.

“He told us there were two incidents he wanted to look closely at and asked would we be prepared to co-operate with him on it.

“We have supplied him with the information requested from both players and also from the team doctor. It is in the hands of the Rugby World Cup now and will take its due course.

“The initiative here came from the match official and we are co-operating with him on it.”

The normal protocol is to name their team on a Tuesday for Saturday’s game, but the win over Argentina left the side so battered and bruised that O’Sullivan today delayed his final decision until Thursday.

His entire squad, including Corrigan and Wood, are available for selection with Alan Quinlan’s replacement, David Wallace, enjoying a training run immediately after touching down today.

Quinlan dislocated his shoulder in the tense victory at the Adelaide Oval and has left the party to make way for Wallace, who will be available for selection despite the quick turnaround.

Although Wallace has only just made the 12,000 mile journey, O’Sullivan believes he will still be better prepared than if he had been on permanent standby at a training camp in Australia for the last three weeks.

“David Wallace arrived at training this morning and took part in the last half hour with the team,” said O’Sullivan.

“This is a policy we adopted before the World Cup. There was a question of bringing players to Australia and keeping them separate from the squad and training then at a separate base.

“But we are of the opinion coming into the World Cup that the most important thing is match fitness.

“Training doesn’t allow you to get match fit so we felt the best thing for players on our shadow squad was to be at home playing for their provinces in the Celtic League.

“So David has come here with five games under his belt and a particularly good rub-out last weekend. He is slightly jet-lagged at the moment, but better to be jet-lagged than ring-rusty.”

And on naming the squad later in the week, O’Sullivan said it was simply a logistical matter and there are no major injury concerns within the squad.

“There is no real problem. Normally we would name the team today, but we only got into town yesterday and had a pretty bruising encounter on Sunday,” he said.

“There are a lot of sore bodies and guys that are carrying knocks and bruises. The only guy who is out of contention is Alan Quinlan with the shoulder dislocation and we knew that on Sunday.

“The other guys of concern are Victor Costello, who took a knock in his thigh, and Kevin Maggs who went over on an ankle.

“We are expecting both to be fit and well by the weekend. Tomorrow is a rest day for the team so we will announce the line-up on Thursday.”