Saracens consider complaint over George insult

Jamie George is alleged to have been subjected to verbal abuse by a Munster club doctor

Saracens are considering an official complaint to the Champions Cup organisers after accusing the Munster team doctor of directing a “horrible” insult at England hooker Jamie George, which sparked a 30-man brawl on Saturday.

Director of rugby Mark McCall confirmed George was the victim of verbal abuse by Dr Jamie Kearns, the Irish province’s chief medic, during the 15-6 win for Saracens which kept their Champions Cup defence alive.

The exchange, which occurred in the 50th minute, culminated in a brawl that spilt over the sidelines at Allianz Park and lasted several minutes.

Saracens assistant coach Alex Sanderson alleged during a pitchside interview that Dr Kearns “said something derogatory to Jamie George about his weight”, and McCall condemned the visitors’ medic.

Tempers flared between Saracens and Munster players

“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.

George (left) looks on as a mass brawl breaks out

“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.”

Saracens trailed 6-3 at the time of the incident, but the heightened emotions appeared to spur the hosts into producing their best rugby as they scored two late tries to retain sight of the quarter-finals.

“Theirs was one of the best defensive performances I’ve seen here but we made it too easy for them,” McCall said. “We were predictable.

“There was another gear to go to and we found that in the last 25 minutes. It’s good because we’ve shown ourselves what we’re capable of. We just do that more consistently now.

Mark McCall says Saracens are considering launching a complaint

“Whether the brawl was coincidental I’m not sure, but we certainly played a lot better afterwards. The boys are buoyed at how they played and if we play rugby like that we’ll be tough to beat.”

Munster head coach Johann van Graan declined to offer his view 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.”