Larkham on Saracens salary cap scandal: 'It wouldn't sit right with me if it was my team'

Munster supporters took more interest than most when the news broke that Saracens were being docked 35 Premiership points and hit with a £5.3million fine because of financial irregularities.

The clubs are due to meet in back-to-back Heineken European Champions Cup games in December and the initial reaction for many was to wonder if this could have implications for Munster.

However, it soon became apparent that this would not be the case, as Munster coach Stephen Larkham outlined.

“We can’t control that and they’re obviously dealing with the repercussions of that," said the Australian.

“It’s not going to change the European games that we are going to have to play against them. I don’t think they’ve lost any points out of Europe have they? It’s just the Premiership so if they are allowed to play their players through the European Cup that’s their challenge."

Tellingly, Larkham did add: “It wouldn’t sit right with me if that was my team but it’s been dealt with and dealt with fairly. European rugby will deal with it. There are guidelines around different competitions. There are salary caps in Super Rugby and it’s played over the four nations, five with Japan this year, but every nation has their own salary cap. South Africa have a different salary cap to what Australia have so it’s the same over here for different competitions."

It remains to be seen if Saracens will suffer some European punishment after European Rugby criticised the club's no-show at yesterday's Champions Cup launch in Cardiff.

But Larkham has made peace with the fact their European campaign won't be affected.

“No, so they can’t be punished for that (in Europe), obviously they’ve made mistakes with the Premiership so I think they’ve been dealt with fairly.”