Ronan O’Gara wades into the Sam Underhill card controversy with two-word tweet and damning emojis

Lawrence Nolan 24 May 2025 12:48 PM

Sam Underhill Bath — Bath's Sam Underhill in Cardiff on Friday night

Former Ireland fly-half Ronan O’Gara has had his say about the Sam Underhill card controversy which erupted during the first half of Friday night’s Challenge Cup final between Bath and Lyon in Cardiff.

England back-rower Underhill was only yellow-carded by referee Hollie Davidson for his brutal 29th-minute head-on-head collision with the Lyon ball-carrier, Davit Niniashvili.

Rather than have the English side defend a 17-5 lead a man down for the remainder of the match, the sanction against Bath was just a 10-minute wait for Underhill to return to the field in a final that they went on to comfortably win 37-12.

Posting on X, the social media platform formerly known as X, in reaction to what had happened in the Underhill collision, La Rochelle boss O’Gara tweeted: “Players safety….” This was followed by three emojis, two of them the visual form of mind blown and then a see no evil monkey.

The post, which had more than 100,000 views, 830 likes and 70 retweets, generated plenty of replies in agreement with how the French-based coach felt about the incident:

“Horrific decision…”

Darran Cornelius: “Certainly doesn’t look good never in a good position to make the tackle – change of direction for me irrelevant always too high. For me a red.”

Remi Calandra: “I know what you mean.”

@rugbeemark: “Absolutely thank you for putting it here.”

Sam Underhill ‘very, very lucky’ to avoid red for horror tackle in Challenge Cup Final

Bath v Lyon: Five takeaways as ‘French-style’ Ben Spencer ‘magnificently executes’ Johann van Graan’s ‘detailed game plan’

Bath player ratings: Ben Spencer and Finn Russell’s ‘masterclass’ inspires famous Challenge Cup victory as ‘incredibly lucky’ Sam Underhill stars

Alan Pembroke: “If they change direction, it’s ok apparently!”

Paul Rossiter: “Horrific decision made way too quickly.”