Leinster’s Tadhg Furlong has been cited for an incident with Munster’s Gavin Coombes during their United Rugby Championship match on Saturday.
Coombes alleged during the game that his testicles had been grabbed and despite match referee Andrew Brace asking the TMO Colin Stanley to review the incident at the time, neither could find evidence of the incident.
However, since the incident was in the referee’s report it could then by reviewed by the citing commissioner Peter Ferguson.
“Leinster Rugby’s Tadhg Furlong has been cited for an incident that occurred in the 37th minute of the United Rugby Championship Round 4 fixture at the Aviva Stadium against Munster Rugby on Saturday, October 24,” a statement from the URC said.
“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).
The Player has been cited under Law 9.27 – 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.
“Arrangements for the disciplinary process are currently in progress and will be announced in due course.”
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan said after the game that he backed Coombe’s in his allegation against Furlong.
“All I know is that I back our players 100% 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,” he said.
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen initially said he was “was not seeing anything on first view” and that it looked like Coombes “had changed his mind halfway through that accusation as well.”
He later clarified: “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.”