THE IRFU will confirm today when they will convene a disciplinary hearing into the 55th-minute red card which John Hayes sustained during Munster’s record 30-0 Magners League defeat to Leinster at the RDS on Saturday evening. Most likely it will take place tomorrow.
Ireland’s most-capped international of all time has a near pristine disciplinary record, never having been sent off in his 16-year career with Bruff, Shannon, Munster and Ireland in around 300 matches. Nonetheless, the utterly uncharacteristic stamping on Cian Healy as the Leinster prop lay underneath a Munster maul looks likely to lead to a suspension for Munster’s forthcoming Heineken Cup games away to Northampton and at home to Perpignan, and may have ramifications for Ireland’s November internationals as well.
Hayes and Healy chatted about the incident afterwards when the Leinster prop visited the Munster dressingroom and Donncha O’Callaghan afterwards spoke in defence of his long-time teammate.
“I didn’t see it. I knew Cian was trying to pull down the maul but I think we all know Hayes. He is the most honest disciplined fella you could come across. That’s nothing like him.”
To put this extraordinary result in perspective, this was Munster’s heaviest defeat in any match since Toulouse beat them 60-19 in the second season (1996-97) of the Heineken Cup; their heaviest Magners League defeat ever, eclipsing the 37-11 loss at home to Ulster last January; the biggest win in this fixture since Leinster won 32-0 in 1958 and the first time Munster have suffered the indignity of drawing a blank in a competitive match since losing 9-0 to Leinster in 1971.
“We’ve had plenty of days like this but it’s about how you come back from it,” said O’Callaghan. “We have to look at it and see where we are, where we lost the battles because we came off second best in an awful lot of them and we are going to have a look at that this week and, more so, we are going to have to have a look at ourselves.”
Tony Buckley looks set to come in for Hayes over the next fortnight, and Munster’s defeat was also compounded by a shoulder injury to Denis Leamy.
The extent of that injury won’t be known until today and the same with Leinster prop Stanley Wright (neck) but the durable Cook Islander is a resilient sort, and CJ van der Linde could also come into the equation for Leinster’s opening defence of their crown against high-flying London Irish.
Michael Cheika said Leinster will return to work this morning happier. “But this victory is wasted if we don’t back it up with a better performance next weekend. I watched them (London Irish) play (Sale) in Manchester and they dogged a win out.
“They like to throw the ball around a little but last night they just dogged it out in the mud and got a good win away from home. They’ve got a lot of strengths and they are probably the clear favourite for the Guinness Premiership.
“This was good for us in the sense that it’s nice to beat Munster, but at the same time we well and truly understand that the real business is starting next weekend”.
