A furious Ronan O'Gara has accused an opposition player of diving like Neymar after his La Rochelle side fell to a sixth successive loss.
The former Ireland fly-half was left angered after watching his player Will Skelton get shown a red card just 20 minutes into their clash with Stade Francais, following what he considered to be play-acting from opposition flanker Romain Briatte.
Skelton had been given his marching orders for an illegal clear-out on the French back rower, but while O'Gara conceded the hit was "not good", he slammed Briatte's reaction and claimed the decision to award a red card made it a "dark day for rugby".
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With the match being played at Parc des Princes - the home ground of Paris Saint-Germain - he compared Briatte to former PSG star Neymar, who has a reputation for making the most of challenges.
“There is a balance to be found between aggression, intelligence and cleaning up,” O'Gara told reporters. “In rugby, you have the right to clean up a ruck. Unfortunately, today, we are at the Parc des Princes and we saw Neymar.
“It’s a dark day for rugby. To give a red card for that? I’m not trying to protect Will because it’s not good, but a rugby player who does that, it’s quite an interesting gesture.”
After his side slipped to a 22-17 defeat, O'Gara finds himself under mounting pressure at La Rochelle, who currently find themselves ninth in the table. While they are still in the hunt for a play-off spot, another defeat would see them slide even further down the current standings.
Last weekend saw them fall to an "unacceptable" shock loss to struggling Racing 92 at home, leading the ever-honest Irishman to admit his side were were in a "crisis".
“Yes, there is no other word, it is a crisis, we have to accept it," he said. “We played a game, especially in the first half, that was unacceptable for a Top 14 team. It is a crisis.
“Now, are we able to save something in a crisis? Or will this crisis make this staff, this team and this group of players 'die'? We can die slowly for the next four months or accept this crisis. For me, it is important to accept that it is a crisis. Accepting it is the first step.”
