McBryde stands by Furlong as Leinster await citing outcome

Confirmation of the disciplinary update landed only a matter of hours before McBryde spoke at the club’s weekly media session. Leinster did not comment on whether they might contest any possible adverse findings.

"I know Tadhg,” said the Welshman. “If I was to give him a character reference, I wouldn't ask this. He's got no history of anything like that. We play guessing games … if anybody wants to comment on it other than Tadhg, really. Just let the process take its course.” 

Peter Ferguson of Scotland is the citing commissioner. His decision comes after TMO Colin Stanley was unable to find sufficient evidence of any potential wrongdoing after the matter had been first brought to the attention of referee Andrew Brace.

It is understood that Ferguson has seen footage that was not shown at the time and it leaves a massive doubt over the availability of Furlong, Ireland’s first-choice tighthead, for a window that will see them play Argentina, Fiji, South Africa and one other opponent.

Springbok hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels received a nine-game ban last season after Connacht lock Josh Murphy claimed he’d grabbed his genitals during a match in Galway. Ferguson was citing commissioner then too.

Leo Cullen on Saturday night had initially suggested that Coombes had started to row back on his claim on the pitch, but Clayton McMillan, Cullen’s counterpart with Munster, backed his player and said it wasn’t something that would have been raised lightly.

This isn’t the first time that controversy has surrounded a Leinster-Munster interpro.

Eric Miller was shown a red card in 2001 for kicking out at a prone Anthony Foley during the Celtic League final at Lansdowne Road, while John Hayes received a ban for stamping on Cian Healy during a big Leinster win at the RDS in late 2009.

Alan Quinlan missed out on a British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa that same year due to a 12-week suspension handed out after he was found guilty of gouging Cullen in the course of a Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park.

If tempers can be raised during these big derbies then McBryde was happy to speak in a more general sense about what he perceives as Leinster’s overall disciplinary record as they await word on what comes next.

“Discipline's very important to us. If you haven't got discipline, you're not going to win anything, you're not going to get into finals or anything because it's massive desperation when you give away red cards, yellow cards.

“It shows that you're not in control of things. Listen, in the big games, things happen, do you know what I mean? So I don't view, yeah. Like I said, there's a process there to go through, so just let that process go.” 

Arrangements for the disciplinary process are still in progress and will be announced in due course. Furlong is, along with 16 other Leinster players, already in Ireland camp in Kildare ahead of the national team's Nations Cup engagements next month.

Connacht are providing eight men to that same Test squad but McBryde is braced for a difficult URC assignment in Galway this Friday where former Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster and a handful of ex-Leinster players lay in wait.

“Listen, it's going to be a challenge. Even if we had the internationals it would still be a challenge to go down there. They're a cohesive bunch. They're very proud, so it'll make our work a little bit harder, obviously.

"We've had this group from the beginning, really. But fair play to Leo, who insisted on taking the internationals out to South Africa, I know we didn't get the results, but there were elements of those two performances that really put us in good stead.

"Since coming back, they've been the ones preparing the team. It's helped us get good results, both in the URC and in Europe. They've been working bloody hard behind the scenes, and this is a great opportunity for them to go and show what they can do.”