Ronan O’Gara receives lengthy touchline ban after match official incident

The former Munster outhalf will not be affected by the ban for this weekend's Champions Cup game at Thomond Park.

Last week, we reported that Ronan O'Gara had been summoned to appear in from of LNR [league] officials on a disciplinary rap. The Racing 92 defence coach took his protests too far after his side had been penalised late in their Top 14 defeat against La Rochelle. O'Gara gave an earful to an assistant referee [fourth official] and the verbals were noted in the referee's match report. He went to the LNR meeting and made his apologies, as well as offering his reasons for the outburst, but it was not enough to prevent a lengthy touchline ban. As reported by L'Equipe, O'Gara has been banned for 10 weeks - from the touchline, dug-out and from going anywhere near the referee's dressing room - so will have to watch Top 14 games from the stands until December 31. This will not help Racing get their messages across to players as Laurent Labit - one of the club's two head coaches - is currently serving a 15-week touchline ban. That leaves Laurent Travers as the guiding voice close to the action. As well as O'Gara's ban, Racing have been fined €10,000 for his offence and a further €5,000 for having 'an unauthorised person' approach the touchline official. Racing are currently in 8th place in the Top 14 after winning three from their opening seven league games. They are in better shape in Europe after defeating Leicester Tigers in their Champions Cup opener in Paris, last weekend. Racing are in Limerick this Saturday to take on Munster and both Labit and O'Gara are free to watch the game from the sidelines, if they so choose, as the ban does not extend to Europe.