Tadhg Beirne: 'Backlash received by me, Porter and our families for Dupont injury was enough punishment'
Tadhg Beirne has said there was no intention to hurt Antoine Dupont. File picture: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
Tadhg Beirne believes the social media backlash he and Andrew Porter experienced after the rugby incident that ended Antoine Dupont’s season in last month’s Ireland-France clash was “enough punishment” for the pair.
No action against the Irish forwards duo was taken by referee Angus Gardner and his team of officials following their breakdown clearout that landed on the French captain and scrum-half’s exposed knee. Yet a furious French camp rounded on Beirne and Porter with head coach Fabien Galthie citing the pair for their part in the incident.
Neither Beirne nor Porter was cited by the Six Nations citing officer but Irish management later revealed both player’s families had been targeted for online abuse in the aftermath of Dupont announcing he would be sidelined for eight months as a result of his ACL rupture.
Speaking ahead of Munster’s Champions Cup Round of 16 visit to French club La Rochelle, led by Dupont’s Test team-mate Gregory Alldritt, Beirne spoke of his efforts to apologise for an incident he insisted was not intentional.
"Yeah look, I reached out to him, I messaged him on Instagram and tried reaching out to him after the game as well but couldn't get to him, he was obviously with medical teams and that,” Munster’s captain said.
"But he has a million followers or something on Instagram, I'm pretty sure he's not going to see a message from me. But look it's all I could do at the time, I sent my regards through Gregory Alldritt as well.
"It's an incident, obviously you can slow it down and it can look bad but the incident wasn't intentional. I never intended to injure him, the last thing I want to do is injure the best player in the world!
"You don't go out there to injure anyone, it was just unfortunate the way it happened and I'm sorry for the fact that it did happen to him, you don't like to see that happen to any player.
"But yeah, the backlash that myself and Porter and our families got afterwards was probably enough punishment for us on its own.”
Munster do have a disciplinary case to answer following Alex Nankivell’s sending off against URC derby rivals Connacht last Saturday but on Tuesday lodged an appeal over the red card for a ruck clearout that left opposing captain Cian Prendergast needing a stretcher off the field at MacHale Park and a trip to hospital.
Referee Craig Evans described Nankivell’s clearout as having a “high degree of danger”, with “no attempt to wrap” his arms in the tackle but Munster are planning for either eventuality from the appeal ahead of their team announcement for La Rochelle on Friday.
Attack coach Mike Prendergast said of Nankivell: “He’ll be available if it goes well. Genuinely, I don’t know. None of us know.” Yet if the inside centre is suspended this weekend, Prendergast added: “Rory (Scannell), Seanie O’Brien can play centre as well, Andrew Smith is back for selection, he couldn’t play last week against Connacht. Jack (Crowley) can move to centre.” Munster’s backline options have been enhanced by a return to fitness for back-three star Thaakir Abrahams, who dislocated a shoulder in December and Prendergast said:
“Yeah, he is back for selection, which is great.” And there is a high degree of confidence that veteran flanker Peter O’Mahony will return to action after missing last Saturday’s bonus-point win at Connacht following a training knock.
“We’re hoping he will be. He trained today and he seemed to get through it. All going well, if he trains Thursday, he will be right in there for selection.”
