Ronan O'Gara handed five week suspension for 'actions against a match official'

The La Rochelle head coach was sanctioned for his 'threatening acts or words towards a match official' during their Top 14 defeat to Toulon at the end of January.

La Rochelle's Ronan O'Gara has been banned for five weeks. Pic: XAVIER LEOTY/AFP via Getty Images.

Ronan O'Gara has been relegated to the stands for his side’s Top 14 trip to bottom-of-the-table Vannes and the rest of the regular season after he was slapped with a five-week touchline ban by the Fédération française de rugby’s appeals committee.

The belated sanction – for ‘actions against a match official’, and for ‘threatening act(s) or word(s) towards a match official’, in his side’s 45-26 loss against Toulon in January, according to the committee’s outline judgement published on Friday, was handed down more than a month after the Top 14’s usual disciplinary arbiters the Ligue Nationale de Rugby formally reprimanded and fined him €3,000 for the incident, at Stade Felix Mayol on January 26.

O’Gara was informed of the suspension, which will keep him away from the touchline for the four remaining games of the regular season and into the play-offs, should seventh-placed La Rochelle qualify for the post-season knockouts, on Wednesday.

He learned the same day there were ‘no grounds for disciplinary action’ by the LNR after he was cited by match officials following his side’s 10-21 win over Bordeaux at Stade Chaban Delmas on April 26.

It has not been confirmed whether the sanction takes in any contact with players on matchdays.

It is uncommon but not unusual for the FFR to pass disciplinary matters on to its appeals committee – but it is unusual for it to impose more severe sanctions. In November, the committee overturned a six-week suspension handed to Toulon manager Pierre Mignoni by the LNR for his behaviour after his side’s loss in Clermont.

But, this time, the committee took a stricter line against O’Gara, who has fallen foul of French rugby authorities several times in his time at La Rochelle.

“The decision is subject to appeal before the Versailles administrative court,” the FFR said, “subject [...] to the mandatory prior referral to the conciliators' conference of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee.”