EPCR issue statement following 30-man all-in-brawl between Saracens and Munster

The EPCR have issued an official statement following the 30-man plus all-in-brawl that marred Saracens and Munster’s European Champions Cup clash at Allianz Park yesterday.

The brawl ignited after an exchange between Munster’s medic and England hooker Jamie George.

Mark McCall claimed that George was the victim of a verbal assault by Dr Jamie Kearns, the Irish province’s chief medic.

Saracens assistant coach Alex Sanderson alleged during a pitchside interview that Dr Kearns “said something derogatory to Jamie George about his weight” as the second quarter was coming to a close, and McCall condemned the visitors’ medic.

Jamie George exchanges words with Munster’s medic, sparking a major brawl at Saracens. This is the tail end of it pic.twitter.com/MbbZVLrRoG

— Duncan Bech (@DuncanBech) December 14, 2019

“Clearly this shouldn’t happen, we all know that. I don’t think what was said to Jamie was good at all. It started a 30-man brawl,” McCall said. “Owen Farrell got penalised for running into the melee but from what I saw 29 other people ran into it!”

“It was a strange penalty to give and it was instigated by a member of their staff who said something horrible to one of our players. Something pretty bad was said at Jamie. He wouldn’t have reacted the way he reacted otherwise. We’ll take our time to decide whether we do anything.”

Saracens fight their corner after an alleged comment directed at Jamie George sparked an all-in brawl versus Munster https://t.co/Oj0Iagj2nU

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 14, 2019

Munster head coach Johann van Graan declined to cast any light on Dr Kearns’ involvement. “I don’t know what happened there. There were a lot of people involved which wasn’t nice to see,” van Graan said.

“We will look into that, I won’t speculate on it. So many things happen in a game of rugby. You don’t want to see a fight.”

The statement reads:

“EPCR has decided to investigate incidents which occurred during the second half of the Heineken Champions Cup, Round 4 match between Saracens and Munster Rugby at Allianz Park yesterday (Saturday, 14 December).

“Information will now be sought from the match officials and from both clubs, and EPCR will be making no further comment until the investigation has been completed.”

– Press Association, additional reporting RugbyPass