Regrets, he’s got a few. Alan Quinlan, denied a once-in-a-lifetime Lions tour to South Africa following his 12-week ban for “making contact with the eye or eye area” of Leo Cullen, today broke his silence on the incident that has left a stain on his career.
The Munster flanker was sanctioned in the wake of the Heineken Cup semi-final after television pictures caught him running his hand across the Leinster captain’s face.
A disciplinary panel would later suspend him for three months – one month more than Schalk Burger and Sergio Parisse received for similiar offences – and deny him the opportunity of touring on the high veldt.
It was a decision that still hurts the 35-year-old but Quinlan - who will not be available until September 10th, one week after the start of the Magners League starts - admits he has no-one to blame but himself.
“It was reckless, it was contact in the eye area and that was my own fault,” he told RTE television. “It's not something I intentionally tried to do, I'd never advocate for anybody to go near anybody's eyes.
“It certainly looked bad and it's something that has had a bad effect on me, my family and friends, and people that are close to me. And people who are close to me know that's not something that I'd do and I suppose I'd just like to let people hear me say it and be honest about it.”
Quinlan insisted he was merely trying to remove Cullen from a ruck and the contact with the eye area was completely accidental. He apologised to the Leinster player in the immediate aftermath of the incident and Cullen supported him at the subsequent disciplinary hearing.
“It certainly looked bad and it's something that I fully regret and have to take ownership for, but my intention was to just try to pull Leo off whatever way I could and unfortunately what happened, happened . . speaking to Leo after the game he didn't have much recollection of anything that happened and was top class about it and certainly helped me in the hearing.
“I have to compliment him on that and thank him on that, because from my point of view it was a massive regret, and it's my own fault. I'd like people to know that it was a reckless mistake, it wasn't intentional from my point of view.”
