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EPCR issue statement following 30-man all-in-brawl between Saracens and Munster
By Online Editors
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.
“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.”
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
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Latest Comments
Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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