Gavin Coombes’ allegation his testicles were grabbed against Leinster to be investigated

Gavin Coombes’ allegation that his testicles were grabbed nearing the end of the first half of Leinster’s 24-18 win over Munster at the Aviva Stadium could not be substantiated during the match on review, but the matter is sure to be investigated further.

Although the referee Andrew Brace and his TMO Colin Stanley could find not find any evidence to support the claim by Coombes, which was made in the 39th minute, as it will be in Brace’s report the citing commissioner, Peter Ferguson of Scotland, is thus duty bound to investigate the matter.

He has a window of 50 hours from the full-time whistle to do so.

“It’s one of those things that we leave in the hands of the powers that be,” said the Munster head coach Clayton McMillan.

“All I know is that I back our players 100 per cent that if they make an allegation like that, they wouldn’t do it lightly, and that’s not the sort of person Gavin is, so we’ll see where that goes.”

Asked about the allegation, McMillan’s counterpart Leo Cullen said: “I can’t see anything there, from what I can see. So, yeah.

“And obviously, that is the accusation, but I’m not seeing anything on first view. So, I don’t know. It looked like he [Coombes] had changed his mind halfway through that accusation as well. So I don’t know.

Clarifying that he was suggesting Coombes had altered his allegation, Cullen said: “Well, that’s the way it sounded, once the scrum was packing down. But I don’t know. Obviously, once that accusation is made, it becomes a serious matter for the citing commissioner. So my comment is not going to help in any way here. But from what I’ve seen, I can’t see anything.”

But given the claim was made against one of his own Leinster players, Cullen admitted: “It’s not ideal. Yeah, it’s not ideal. So, you’d want to be very clear if something’s happened.”

Cullen had not had any discussion with any of the officials about the incident and he laughed off his exchange with the Munster defence coach Denis Leamy, who was previously an assistant to Cullen at Leinster.

“Yeah, but we were former coaching mates, so we were just having a very passionate discussion about the game,” said Cullen, adding: “We’re still very good mates, yeah.”

Regarding Leinster’s comeback from 13-0 down with four tries to earn a bonus-point win, Cullen hailed his team’s composure.

“They’re always unbelievably fiercely contested derby games. I thought Munster were good in the contact area, probably a little bit better than us in the first half, both sides of the ball and obviously they went into a 13-0 lead.

“I was like, ‘Oh, is this going to be a bit like it was last year in Croke Park?’” added the Leinster coach in reference to Munster’s win there a year ago. “But I thought the players showed good composure to come back and get a try, and we started getting a little bit of an ascendancy, but then we would give away a turnover.

“You had to carry into that breeze. Obviously, it’s tricky enough conditions, the way it looked, certainly from the wind point of view. So you’re going to have to carry, you’re going to have to roll your sleeves up in the first half.

“There was a couple of times we were just a little bit off, gave away turnovers, and that gives Munster life. But the message really at halftime was ‘just stick to it’ and make sure they enjoy themselves. And keep pounding away.

“I think we’ve dominated territory and possession. Play the game in the right areas of the field. The scrum gets dominant, which is good as well.

“And Munster, I thought they’re hanging in, they’re giving away penalties, a lot of penalties. Eventually someone goes to the bin.

“So, the composure is good, the players stick to it, which is big.

“This time last year, we were poor when we got ourselves in that position. We made life more difficult for ourselves, we weren’t clinical, but [we were] so much more clinical in the second half [today].

“But Munster brought a huge amount to the contest, didn’t they? We had to find a way out there today in difficult conditions. So, yeah, pleased to get a win, bonus point. And we move on.”

Although Munster rallied to earn a losing bonus point with Ben O’Connor’s try from the last play of the game, McMillan’s over-riding emotion was one of disappointment.

“We didn’t come here to lose and we don’t take any satisfaction out of being gallant losers. To walk away with a bonus point is nice because you look at the table and it’s pretty congested, but it was genuine disappointment in the changing shed because we felt like we had enough opportunities and we didn’t nail them all.”

The Munster captain Tadhg Beirne conceded: “You’ve got to give credit to Leinster.”

He added: “The wind was strong, we had the advantage in the first half, and they capitalised on that [in the second], but I think the discipline is probably something we need to work on, particularly the second half of games at the moment.”

Munster conceded the first eight penalties of the second half in losing that count 17-12.

“We’re kind of falling off a little bit and letting teams back into it through our ill-discipline, and it’s just giving teams a little bit of momentum or even a little bit of belief against us and making it more difficult for ourselves.”

“Ultimately, I thought the first half we were really good, but second half we just compounded errors on our end, whether it was a penalty or just an individual skill error like myself, the ball going straight through my hands in the lineout and they score not long after that.

“So yeah, I think if we can clean those up, we’ll be in a much better place, but they did well to get the momentum and keep the foot on the peddle today.”