Saracens consider lodging complaint over Munster medic

Exchange between doctor and Jamie George sparked mass brawl in second half

A fight breaks out between Saracens and Munster players during the   match at Allianz Park. Photo: Adam Davy/PA Wire.
A fight breaks out between Saracens and Munster players during the match at Allianz Park. Photo: Adam Davy/PA Wire.

England hooker Jamie George was the target of a "horrible" insult as Saracens exploded into life after a 30-man brawl that marred an otherwise stirring 15-6 Heineken Champions Cup victory over Munster.

Saracens are considering whether to make an official complaint after director of rugby Mark McCall confirmed that George was insulted by Dr Jamie Kearns, Munster's chief medic.

The exchange sparked a mass fight that spilled over the sidelines and when order was eventually restored, the European champions played their best rugby of the match with tries from Sean Maitland and Jamie George sweeping them out of sight.

Saracens assistant coach Alex Sanderson alleged during a pitchside interview that Dr Kearns "said something derogatory to Jamie George about his weight" and McCall was forthright in his criticism of the visitors' medic.

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"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.”