RUGBY: The Leinster coaching duo of Michael Cheika and David Knox have been fined by their own association following complaints about their behaviour towards match officials in recent Magners Celtic League games and vowed to adhere to a new protocol with regard to their dealings with match officials henceforth.

Meanwhile, the Leinster hooker Brian Blaney will face an IRFU disciplinary hearing this evening following his altercation with referee Simon McDowell in the recent Leinster-Munster Celtic League match.

The internal disciplinary procedures, brought into place by the Leinster Management Committee, followed formal complaints arising from incidents in the Llanelli-Leinster tie in Stradey Park on September 23rd and the aforementioned Leinster-Munster match at Lansdowne Road last Friday week.

In the former case, the Welsh referees association made a complaint about Knox following an altercation with a Welsh official - who apparently also had a run-in with Cheika at a Cardiff-Leinster match last season, although no action was taken then.

Cheika himself was seen to remonstrate with referee Simon McDowell at the end of the first half of Leinster's win over Munster recently, on foot of which McDowell's match report was leaked in which he was quoted as claiming the Leinster coach used abusive language toward him.

Last season, Cheika was obliged to pay a four-figure sum to the IRFU charitable trust and apologise to the fourth official at the Leinster-Munster match in the RDS, when Cheika was also alleged to have verbally abused McDowell.

Ironically, as an aside, McDowell was also the official who incurred the wrath of Matt Williams, another Australian to have coached Leinster, after McDowell erroneously disallowed a Scottish try in Paris two seasons ago.

Leinster's Professional Team Management Committee of chairman Paul McNaughton, branch CEO Mick Dawson, Tom Grace, Paddy Boylan, Frank Sowman and Caleb Powell met on Sunday and after further meetings with Cheika and Knox yesterday, "the issue was dealt with", according to McNaughton.

"Leinster have imposed a substantial monetary fine on the two coaches and also agreed with the two coaches on a detailed protocol in terms of dealing with officials going forward for the rest of the season," added McNaughton.

The outcome "has been accepted by all three parties concerned, Leinster, the two coaches and the IRFU", according to McNaughton, the union having instigated the disciplinary process arising from McDowell's match report.

It was also alleged Munster coach Declan Kidney had gone to the officials' room at half-time in the aforementioned match and complained about Cheika's behaviour. However, McNaughton said Kidney rang him early yesterday morning to assure McNaughton - whom Kidney had worked alongside as Leinster coach the season before last - that "he did not for one moment discuss Michael Cheika with the referee; that he did not and never would do such a thing. Frankly, I never believed that he did."

Munster sources also verified this and stressed it was normal procedure for coaches to engage referees in a brief dialogue at half-time.

Leinster certainly have moved with unusual swiftness, a point Cheika himself readily conceded.

"There's no winning in this situation. We take it on the chin and move on. The detail doesn't matter in a sense. The referee runs the game and that's it, and when you step out of line you gotta wear it. I'm happy with the new protocol and so are all the coaching staff. Now we're really focusing on the team and Saturday's match against Gloucester."

Potentially more damaging to Leinster will be the IRFU disciplinary hearing into McDowell's other complaint, alleging that Blaney pulled his shirt and queried a decision in a physically- threatening manner. The Leinster hooker can be seen to approach McDowell from behind as the teams and officials begin to leave the pitch at the end of the first half, although there is no evidence of him pulling the referee's jersey.

Blaney apparently maintains he merely touched McDowell on the back before asking the referee about a decision or decisions which culminated in a contentious try off the base of a five-metre scrum by David Wallace in which the officials missed Peter Stringer clearly, if cleverly, obstructing Guy Easterby.

Leinster are livid aspects of McDowell's report were leaked and that this undermined the possibility of Blaney receiving a fair hearing, on top of which lurks the fear he could be made a scapegoat. The recommended IRB sanction for "threatening words or actions towards match officials" is bans ranging from three months to two years.

"I cannot comment on that matter, it is obviously sub judice," said McNaughton tersely, while the chairman of the IRFU's disciplinary committee, Finbarr Crowley, also declined to comment, even to confirm whether the hearing will be this evening or who the panel will consist of.

Looking ahead to Saturday's game, Cameron Jowitt and Chris Whitaker remain Leinster's biggest doubts of their walking wounded, with Denis Hickie, Shane Horgan and Girvan Dempsey all expected to be fit. Jowitt has a bruised knee; likewise the damaged nerve in Whitaker's shoulder.

With Guy Easterby sidelined for six weeks, Cillian Willis would step in at scrumhalf if Whitaker is ruled out, not something that unduly worries Cheika, who says Willis is "learning plenty in a short period of time" .