Of all O'Gara's team-mates, no one was more seethingly frustrated than Brian O'Driscoll. "My eyesight doesn't stand to me too well, but I can't believe I didn't see any of that. You play the game, but it frustrates me.

"Particularly him (O'Gara). I would love to have seen it. I'm not normally that way inclined, but if there was anyone on the team I'd go in there to defend it would be 'Rog' and I'd like to think he'd do the same for me. My blood is boiling now. That annoys me.

"If that happened to Danny Grewcock you can handle, but 'Rog'?

Not that all the coverage is blinkered, and in the Sun-Herald their respected rugby correspondent Greg Growden commented: "The match was, overall, a blight on Australia rugby. It was also obvious that the Waratahs enjoyed being the aggressors.