{"id":452896,"date":"2026-05-17T03:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452896\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T03:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:24:08","slug":"youd-imagine-he-felt-or-saw-what-he-saw-mcmillan-on-alleged-spitting-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452896\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You’d imagine he felt or saw what he saw’ \u2013 McMillan on alleged spitting incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUNSTER CAN LOOK forward to a URC quarter-final away to the Bulls after a gutsy win against the Lions <\/a>confirmed their place in the top eight, but an alleged spitting incident at Thomond Park proved a sour point in an otherwise entertaining contest in Limerick.<\/p>\n

Munster hooker Diarmuid Barron alleged he was spat at around the hour mark during tonight\u2019s 24-17 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Play was stopped as referee Andrea Piardi went to examine the alleged incident, but the TMO, Stefano Penne, couldn\u2019t provide the footage on camera.<\/p>\n

The game then continued after Piardi had consulted the two captains, noting the allegation could yet be investigated by the citing commissioner.<\/p>\n

Post-game, Munster head coach Clayton McMillan couldn\u2019t shed any further light but said he had no reason to doubt Barron\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh look, he\u2019s been around a long time and we\u2019re not a team that plays silly buggers, so you\u2019d imagine he felt or he saw what he saw,\u201d McMillan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have three or four angles available to us. I\u2019m sure others might have a look at it but that\u2019s not our job to do now. Other people will have a look and if there\u2019s something there to see, then they\u2019ll deal with it, and if there isn\u2019t, then we\u2019ll move forward.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in terms of Diarmuid\u2019s integrity, that\u2019s not in question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Munster captain Craig Casey didn\u2019t see the alleged incident, but had informed Piardi after speaking to Barron.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, (I was) just going off what Barronsy said. To reiterate what Clayton said, I think Barronsy is a very honest bloke in everything he does, so I would take his word for everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen it live, I haven\u2019t seen it on replay or anything like that, so can\u2019t really comment, but I trust Barronsy with everything I own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, McMillan was pleased to see his team come through a challenging encounter and book a quarter-final trip to face the Bulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably relief more than anything,\u201d McMillan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot just the blokes out on the field but the 15,000 in the stands and lots in their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust relief. Big pressure coming into a game like this where it\u2019s pretty obvious what we needed to do.<\/p>\n

It was never going to be easy, but I thought our guys acquitted themselves well tonight under those circumstances. Tough when we needed to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the first 40 minutes outside of the two yellows was probably as good as the first half that I reckon we produced this year. We did a lot of good things and probably unlucky not to score a few more points.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut pleased for the players because I\u2019ve been working hard to give ourselves an opportunity to get to finals rugby and that\u2019s been achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result also ensures Munster will be playing Champions Cup rugby next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there\u2019s that as well. That\u2019s the premier competition in this part of the world and it would have been a massive disappointment to not be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we reflect on this year, we\u2019ll look at a few moments during the year where what could have been a couple of little things gone our way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might have done a lot better in the Champions Cup than what we did. We\u2019ll give ourselves another chance next year but that\u2019s in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just turn our attention now to enjoying tonight and taking a few days to breathe, soak it all in, and then later in the week we\u2019ll turn our attention to the Bulls.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNSTER CAN LOOK forward to a URC quarter-final away to the Bulls after a gutsy win against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11896,65813,196563,61,60,6999,36270,112,11581],"class_list":["post-452896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-clayton-mcmillan","tag-craig-casey","tag-diarmuid-barron","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-munster","tag-reaction","tag-sports","tag-urc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}