Galwey bites back in Gaillimh

PETER CLOHESSY was bitten by Ismail Lassissi in the notorious European Cup clash between Munster and Castres in France last season.

The Munster prop, however, was not guilty of racial abuse in the wake of the incident, Michael Galwey insists in his new autobiography, launched last night in Limerick.

‘Gallimh’ recalls that, to ensure a home draw in the Cup quarter final of 2001 they had to get something out of the visit to Castres.

“Facts are facts. Claw was bitten,” he writes in Gaillimh, The Autobiography. “There are no two ways about it. He didn’t do it himself. Peter went up to the referee and said ‘he bit me.’ I saw it clearly for myself. You know teeth marks when you see them. The referee claimed he didn’t see anything, his touch judges didn’t see anything and so they insisted they couldn’t react to what we said was a bite.”

The referee called Galwey and Gregor Townsend, the Castres captain, together. But Townsend started going on about alleged racist remarks.

“The issue was that Peter was bitten. He was just describing the fella. It wasn’t in any way racist or anything like that. He was just telling the ref about the guy who had bitten him. He said something like ‘the black f***ing bit me.’ I suppose that could be called racist and that’s the way they pushed it. But there were fifteen of them and only one black fella and that was Peter’s way of getting his message across.

“It wasn’t a racist remark. It was purely a means of identification. Nobody likes citing a player, but because of the nature of the incident, we had to do it. If we didn’t, we would be seen to be condoning it and that was the way we felt about it.”

Galwey says Munster subsequently cited Lassissi and Castres, in turn, cited Clohessy, which, he says, “was a joke” but it meant they had to go to Dublin for the ERC hearing.

“Peter and I went up, Jerry Holland and the team doctor Michael Shinkwin were there and they were called in. The case against Peter was dropped and Lassissi got the minimum suspension of one year. That seemed to be the end of that and we were reasonably happy that justice had been served, even if we still resented the fact that Peter’s name and Munster’s impeccable and justified reputation for fair and sporting play had been dragged through the mud.

“We thought it had all been put to bed. But we were wrong. An appeal was heard in Dublin and basically he got away with it,” Gallimh recalls.

The book, co-written by the Irish Examiner’s Charlie Mulqueen, costs 20 and was launched at a reception in the permanent tsb in Limerick last evening. There will also be launches in Castleisland on Sunday and Dublin on Tuesday.