Argentina prop Rodrigo Roncero is never far from the action, and although he’s now 35 years old, he’ll be one to keep an eye on in the upcoming Rugby Championship. Here’s an amusing look at what happened with him a few years ago against Ireland.
Ireland beat Argentina 17-3 in the Autumn of 2008 in what was a tempered affair at Croke Park. Ronan O’Gara kicked 12 points and set up a try to claim the Man of the Match award.
He didn’t make any friends out there though as he got himself in numerous tangles with Argentine players, and fiery front rower Roncero in particular.
As the game was petering out the prop and flyhalf appeared to get themselves in an off the ball scuffle, which was picked up by touch judge Mark Lawrence. A minute later Roncero found himself with ball in hand, and O’Gara, the target of his affections, directly in front of him.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen ROG barged out the way but this one was quite spectacular as he went airborne, then came to ground and stuck a boot in Roncero’s nether region.
What that did was set up an amusing situation as O’Gara was announced as man of the match while a handful of opposition players stood and took some shots at him, albeit verbally. He soaked it up and didn’t show any signs of backing down as the banter and abuse flowed freely.
It appears as though Roncero was penalised for this charge, but it was actually for the scuffle before that, which wasn’t caught on camera. Not long afterwards, Roncero dished out a few verbals to the touchjudge, which resulted in referee Bryce Lawrence sending him to the sinbin.
It was an eventful period of play and one that needed to be archived here, especially ahead of this weekend’s Rugby Championship, where we will see Roncero strutting his stuff against South Africa.
Have a look at the related posts below for some huge fends, fights, and O’Gara being knocked down
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