Ospreys 15 Leicester 9:LEICESTER'S DELIGHT at winning the most fiercely contested pool in the Heineken Cup turned to fury when they learned the Ospreys had reported their prop Julian White to the citing commissioner, Denis Templeton, with the Welsh side accusing the veteran England forward of eye-gouging their hooker Richard Hibbard .
The Tigers’ coach, Richard Cockerill, had an angry exchange with his opposite number, Sean Holley, in the stadium’s foyer after the latter had pointed the finger at White. Holley was eventually led away by a media official, leaving an angry Cockerill to deny the accusation levelled at the prop, who was last week recalled to the England squad after Matt Stevens failed a drugs test.
“We are Leicester. My players do not do things like that and I am very disappointed this has been raised,” said Cockerill. “We will defend Julian against any charge.”
White, who suffered a head wound in the first half which eventually forced him off the field with 15 minutes to go, declined to give his version of events, while Ospreys kept Hibbard away from talking. White faces a ban of up to six months if any citing is upheld.
The post-match exchanges were more stimulating than the eyesore of the preceding 80 minutes. The two sides fought out their second tryless encounter in three months and both achieved their minimum target: the Tigers grabbing a bonus point to top the pool and the Ospreys the win needed to claim a place in the last eight. The Tigers never looked like winning after falling behind to the first two of James Hook’s five penalties in the opening 13 minutes, but they defended well and established supremacy in the set-pieces.
OSPREYS: Henson; Williams, Bowe, A Bishop, Vaughton; Hook, Phillips (Nutbrown, 75); James, Hibbard (Bennett, 70), A Jones, Gough, AW Jones, R Jones, Holah, Tiatia (T Smith, 76).
Leicester: G Murphy; Hamilton, Rabeni, Flood, M Smith (J Murphy, 53); Hougaard, Dupuy; Stankovich, Kayser (Chuter, 79), White (Castrogiovanni, 65), Corry, Wentzel (Kay, 64), Croft, Woods, Crane.Sin-bin: Flood 34.
Referee: C Berdos (France).
Guardian Service
