Penalty.

Munster scrumhalf Conor Murray says Pascal Gauzere’s decision to reverse a penalty because of a late hit on lock Tadhg Beirne in their Champions Cup quarter final win over Edinburgh was “100%” correct.

Beirne has been criticised for “milking”a challenge by Edinburgh prop Pierre Schoeman late in the second-half that resulted in referee Gauzere reversing a penalty against Munster that gave them field position for Keith Earls’ decisive score.

Brian O’Driscoll was among those to criticise Beirne for making the most of the challenge, as he feels it’s not a “good look for the game”. But teammate Murray says it was definitely a penalty, and perhaps might now have been rewarded had Beirne not “stayed down and drew attention to it.”

“In slow-motion it actually looks a bit worse than it is, but in real time it’s a penalty. Every day of the week it is a penalty.” Murray told Virgin Media’s Sinéad Kissane.

“If you look at it in real time, real speed, Schoeman literally looks at Tadhg and checks him. Thankfully it was a penalty because it turned the game.”

“Maybe you could say the ref wouldn’t have gone back if Tadhg hadn’t stayed down and drew attention to it.”

“You’d have to ask Tadhg how badly he was hurt. But by the letter of the law it was 100% a penalty.

“I don’t think Tadhg broke any laws, he might have stayed down dependant on his pain threshold – you’d have to ask him! But again it was a penalty.”