“I’ve heard they’re all complaining about late hits.”
Munster head coach Johann Van Graan feels his young outhalf was targeted by Harlequins players. Quins scrumhalf Danny Care has told Munster to get over it and says he is looking forward to the rematch, next month.
Munster eventually pulled away at Thomond Park, on Sunday, and picked up a decent victory over the English side to start off their Champions Cup campaign. Ben Healy came in for some heavy treatment, during that game, and will miss this weekend’s game against Clermont after picking up a shoulder injury.
“We’re very worried about him, he took two late hits there,” Van Graan said after the match. “We’re going to get him checked out now. It was quite clearly a tactic from the opposition to hit him late and certain things in the game are just unacceptable. He’s now got injured because of that.”
However, speaking on BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly, Care said it was all part of the cut and thrust of top-level rugby before going on to accuse Munster players of ‘rolling around and diving’.
Danny Care poses for a portrait during the Harlequins squad photo call for the 2020-21 Gallagher Premiership Rugby season. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images for Harlequins)Care’s take on the match was that it was a tough day at the office for Quins and ‘there was obviously a bit of niggle between an Irish team and an English team’.
“Our discipline let us down and it was a bit too much for us to do,” he said.
“There was a couple of 50-50 decisions went against us, a couple of Irish linesmen but we won’t say anything more than that.
“I’ve heard they’re all complaining about late hits, ask Mike Brown about late hits and why he didn’t come back on the pitch. He was KO-ed. Nothing came of that, we took a couple of yellow cards.”
On the rough treatment meted out to Healy, the 84-times capped England international explained it away as something that happens in every game.
“You go after every No 10, anything we did to their 10 was done to our players,” he declared.
“We thought we were playing PSG a couple of times with all the rolling around and diving and complaining.
“It’s a physical sport, they got the better of it and we look forward to the rematch in January. I loved the game, it was niggly, feisty – England v. Ireland. It made me feel like I was back in a Test match environment.”
We are already circling the return pool stage match between Munster and Harlequins, on January 23, in big, bright red.
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