"There was an incident on the ground when someone tried to choke O'Gara, " O'Sullivan said. "Someone had their arm around his neck, cut off his air supply and he went blue. I'd rather not say who it was. I believe it was deliberate. Putting your hand around someone's neck and trying to choke them is hard to do by accident.

"I didn't see it because I'm in the stands like everyone else and he was at the bottom of a ruck with people on top of him. When the ruck broke up Ronan had gone blue and was losing consciousness.

"The doctor came on, checked his air supply was clear and he started breathing again. It's an unfortunate incident but it happened."

Meanwhile, Denis Hickie admitted Ireland were relieved to clinch the Triple Crown after a gruelling encounter.

"It was a bizarre kind of game for us, a very tough game, " Hickie said afterwards.

"We knew Scotland were going to come out a very different side. What happened (against Italy) wasn't a very true reflection of where they are. We weren't very disciplined today. We missed a few chances, myself included.

We're happy to get out of here with a win, especially when we were behind with 15 minutes to go."

For Ireland, the win clinched a third Triple Crown in four years which should make up for some of the disappointment of losing to France. "It's great - I've never won it, " said Hickie. "I wasn't playing in the other two so I'm pretty happy to be involved in this one. We haven't got so far ahead of ourselves that the Triple Crown all of a sudden doesn't mean anything to us. We're delighted."