Ronan O'Gara questions O'Mahony red card

La Rochelle head coach and legendary Ireland flyhalf Ronan O’Gara has said he believes Ireland would have beaten Wales by ten points had they not been forced to play most of the game with 14 men.

Ireland put up a brave performance and were even ahead at half-time after Peter O’Mahony was given his marching orders for a supposedly illegal clean-out at a ruck after only 14 minutes. However, Wales clawed back with their extra man and the final whistle sounded with the score at 21-16.

“Jeez, there was so much involved in that game wasn’t there?” O’Gara said.

“There was so many talking points, so many. I think you see the real big difference between what happens at Test level to the club game. It’s nearly like a different sport. The fine margins at Test level just come to a whole new meaning when it’s played in the three games over the weekend, well two games.

“You look at the first two penalties which Wales get, it’s a decision around the ruck which is always probably your understanding of that situation. But three points to Halfpenny is a gift. A high tackle by Johnny, anything like that nowadays, it’s a penalty and three points with the quality of kickers.

“So Wales go 6-0 and I thought Ireland played some good stuff. I haven’t listened to anyone so I have a clean mind on it. I thought there was good tempo in the game for the first 30 minutes but they were probably undone with an error here or there that was very costly.

“What’s fascinating for me is the red card. So, it just shows nowadays that the referee on the field isn’t the most important person. It’s the TMO because to quote Wayne Barnes, ‘it’s a clear out, it’s totally unavoidable’ was his language.

“If you have that in your sport where it becomes stopped and frozen and we’re looking at stills, I think they’re going to have to do something at the breakdown because you need force to clear people and obviously force to the head is a red card. Is it foul play?

“He’s come from a distance, it’s high speed and he’s hit him in head, he’s not in control. It’s high danger. Sanction is a red card.

“So from 60 seconds previously to watching it live, Wayne Barnes thinks it’s a clear out and there’s nothing wrong and it’s totally unavoidable to his attention being drawn to it. It’s the TMO who stops the game and we have a look at one image and it gives the referee the view that it’s a blow to the head and once it’s a blow to the head it’s a red card.

“It was Johnny who cleared out the prop and normally he stays on his stomach, but Peter parks up a little bit. I do think he actually is in control. As a coach, it’s getting very, very difficult to understand what we need to do in this aspect of the game.”

“If there’s intent to maim a guy, it’s obviously a red card but that’s at the other end of the scale. You can see that Peter is in control of his feet from my point of view but I don’t have an answer for you because so many players, the Pococks of the world, the fellas that are poaching the ball, if you take that bit away from the game then from a coach’s point of view they’re not that interesting.

“Winning those (turnover) penalties are absolutely crucial but if someone locks onto the ball, sometimes technique goes out the window and you have to really arrive with impetus to shift them and sometimes it’s too hard as we’ve seen.

“But the good thing about it is that at Test level there’s 200-odd cameras to show that anything that’s sinister or nasty or close to it, it’s picked up now. What’s happening at that level of the game is discipline is unbelievable because the red card had the biggest impact.

“Ireland probably would have won the game by 10 points I would think. Even saying that, I think Ireland will be disappointed with their inaccuracies in certain aspects of the game that cost the game considering all that went against them, but that (red card) was the key point.”