Top 14: Christophe Urios-Ronan O’Gara clash rumbles on
As touchline spats go, it was reasonably tame. But with the French media going into meltdown, it seems as though the Top 14 disciplinary may look at Saturday’s contretemps between Ronan O’Gara and Christophe Urios.
The pair, coaches of La Rochelle and Union Bordeaux-Begles respectively, clashed just before half-time on the touchline of the derby in Bordeaux, won by La Rochelle by a point.
That escalated quickly
O’Gara had made as audible and visible as possible his appreciation of a good defensive set from his side, irking the UBB coach who asked O’Gara, in no uncertain terms, to pipe down.
Not only did O’Gara not pipe down, he didn’t back down either, and the two were quickly eyeball-to-eyeball, with sideline officials standing by to intervene.
It didn’t quite come to blows, but Urios’ little slap/flick to O’Gara’s chops is evidently the subject of discussion in the disciplinary corridors, something which Urios is not happy about in the least.
The two teams meet twice more over the coming fortnight, with a two-legged European tie to settle and with the disharmony between the two now certain to be a sub-plot.
O’Gara moved to bury the controversy a little on Monday, telling reporters: “It’s no big deal. He didn’t like me shouting encouragement to the players on the sideline.
“I’m a young coach and I talk a lot and I like my players to hear me on the pitch. His reaction shows how tense the game was, but it’s over, and we move on. It’s nothing big, it’s just rugby.”
Urios, however, did not appear to be ready to calm down so quickly, not least when it was put to him that the league was looking at the incident, but he reserved special ire for O’Gara.
“This guy. He’s insufferable. It’s a shame the officials didn’t do their job: how did he get onto the field?” he said.
“He’s in the stands causing trouble up there. He comes down to the pitch and causes trouble there as well.
“Yes (he wound me up) as he does every time. But I’ve moved on. I don’t care about O’Gara.
“There was tension. Good. So there will be some for the next four halves.”
That last bit was reference to the forthcoming back-to-back European clashes between the two teams, which looked spicy before but now look positively volcanic.
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