Clayton McMillan: Gavin Coombes and Munster have moved on from Tadhg Furlong incident

Munster forwards coach Jimmy Duffy and Gavin Coombes. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

Head coach Clayton McMillan has declared that Gavin Coombes and the rest of the Munster camp have moved on from the controversy that overshadowed Saturday’s URC interpro with Leinster at the Aviva.

Tadhg Furlong was on Monday cited under Law 9.27 which states: “A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship including but not limited to grabbing, twisting or squeezing the genitals.” 

The alleged incident occurred in the 37th minute of the game. The URC statement stated that the “Citing Commissioner in charge has made a complaint about an act of foul play by the Player (Tadhg Furlong No 3) against opponent Gavin Coombes (No 8)”.

It is an episode that has overshadowed what was an engrossing derby in Dublin, but McMillan was insistent that Coombes has eyes only for this weekend’s URC game against the Sharks at Thomond Park.

“Nothing has changed for Gavin,” said the Kiwi. “Like, yeah, he's he turned up on Monday, and obviously, what's happened on the weekend is now in the hands of the judicial committee and, like the rest of the group, he's just turned up and focused on preparing for the Sharks this weekend, allowing whatever happens in the background to take care of itself.” 

Peter Ferguson of Scotland was the citing commissioner. His decision comes after TMO Colin Stanley was unable to find sufficient evidence of any potential wrongdoing when the matter was 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, while Leinster head coach Leo Cullen expressed doubt about the allegation after the game, McMillan feels the opposite was obvious.

“I think it was obvious after the game when the Citing Commissioner was there that they saw a case to answer, and that's been proven to be the case. And again, we leave it in the hands of the judiciary. There's nothing more for us to add in that regard.” 

Meanwhile, Shane Daly and Sean O’Brien were both listed as injuries after their input at the weekend. Daly suffered a head injury and was carted off but O’Brien is rated “touch and go” for the Sharks his head coach despite a groin issue.

McMillan is also hoping other bodies will be back.

Edwin Edogbo and Will Harrison have been mentioned as players approaching full fitness.

“Pretty confident there'll be at least a couple back. It's really just a case of weighing up whether in the last game of this block it's worthwhile chucking them out or giving them a couple of extra weeks, given that there's no rugby after that.

“So our hand might be forced in a couple of those decisions, given that there was a couple of things over the weekend. But yeah, we haven't we haven't sort of selected the side yet.”