McRae recalls moment of madness

Duncan McRae tonight admitted the infamous Ronan O’Gara punching incident left a “black mark” on his rugby career.

The rival fly-halves will come face to face on Saturday when Gloucester tackle Munster in a Heineken Cup showdown at Kingsholm.

They have not opposed each other since the Lions beat New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney two and a half years ago.

On that occasion, McRae played full-back for the Waratahs and O’Gara featured as a first-half replacement instead of injured Lions centre Will Greenwood.

The match is remembered primarily for the sickening flurry of punches thrown by McRae which left Irish international O’Gara, who was pinned to the floor, nursing a horrible facial injury.

McRae was sent off and subsequently banned for seven weeks after his moment of madness, and it probably put an end to his representative career in Australia.

“I have apologised publicly a number of times,” said McRae, following training with his Gloucester team-mates today.

“I can’t keep looking back at my career – it was almost three years ago now, and I am trying to look forward. I’m employed to play for Gloucester, and I’ve got to do the best I can for them.

“It was such a surreal moment, to be honest. I can look back and say ‘why did I do it?’ I can’t answer that.

“Sometimes, things happen you don’t wish to happen. Throughout a career, you have ups and downs, and that was a black mark on my career, no doubt about that.

“I’ve put my hand up and said that I did the wrong thing in the heat of the moment, and I paid for it dearly. I made my bed, and I’ve got to lie on it,” he added.

“I can’t control what other people think, that’s their business, but it was a black mark on my career and I fully accept that.

“I’ve never seen the guy (O’Gara) to apologise, mainly because we’ve lived in different hemispheres.”

McRae will be key to Gloucester’s hopes of tightening their grip on Pool Five by achieving a third successive group win.

Two of the Cherry and Whites’ remaining three games after this weekend are away from home – against Munster and Bourgoin – so a home defeat on Saturday would seriously hinder their quarter-final prospects.

Gloucester though, will face Munster without their England and Lions tighthead prop Phil Vickery.

Vickery is still recovering from a rib injury, but he could return for Saturday week’s return at Thomond Park, Limerick.

“We are hopeful about Phil’s prospects for next week,” said Gloucester rugby director Nigel Melville. “We don’t want to rush him back, and then see him a suffer a recurrence of the injury.”

Munster coach Alan Gaffney, meanwhile, has made one change to the team that defeated Connacht in Celtic League action last Friday night.

Irish international prop John Hayes returns to the front row, while former Swansea wing Shaun Payne retains his place at full-back, with Jeremy Staunton on the bench.

“We enjoyed playing Munster home and away in the Heineken Cup last season - they are a pretty special outfit,” Melville added. “They were hard, physical games and fantastic occasions.”

Munster (versus Gloucester): S Payne; J Kelly, M Mullins, R Henderson, A Horgan; R O’Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, J Williams (capt), D Wallace, A Foley.