Clayton McMillan backs Gavin Coombes as 'serious' accusation levelled at Leinster player

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan has backed No.8 Gavin Coombes following an allegation the No.8 made during Munster’s 24-18 loss to Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

The home side recovered from a sluggish start and a 13-0 deficit to claim a 24-18 URC victory over Munster at the Aviva Stadium.

Charlie O’Shea’s boot and Shane Daly’s superb first-half try put Munster in control before Jamison Gibson-Park’s brilliant pass sent Tommy O’Brien over before the break. Ryan Baird’s try sparked the comeback, with Joey Carbery adding the extras.

Scores from Charlie Tector and Jamie Osborne completed the turnaround before Ben O’Connor grabbed a late consolation try for Munster.

However, an alleged groin-grab incident will now likely end up with citing commissioner Peter Ferguson of the SRU, who now has 48 hours in which to decide whether or not a case is brought.

Just before half-time, Coombes approached referee Andrew Brace and levelled an accusation of a groin grab against one of Leinster’s forwards, with screenshots doing the rounds on social media suggesting Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher was the player at the centre of the claim, the incident happening during a ruck at roughly 37 minutes.

It was a major post-match talking point and questions were put to both McMillan and Leinster head coach Leo Cullen.

“It’s one of those things where you leave it for the powers that be,” McMillan told the post-match press conference. “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 he’s not that sort of person, Gavin, so we’ll see where that goes.”

Cullen remained cagey around the incident and was at pains to point out he hadn’t seen anything.

“I didn’t see anything… I don’t know,” said Cullen. “It looked like he [Coombes] changed his mind halfway through the accusation as well, so I don’t know.

“Once that accusation is made it becomes a serious matter for the citing commissioner, so my comments cannot help in any way here… From what I see, I can’t see anything.

“It’s not ideal,” admitted Cullen.