Neither Pat Whelan, the Irish team manager until his resignation on Tuesday, nor Tom English, the Sunday Times rugby writer, were available for comment yesterday regarding reports of an alleged incident between the two late on Sunday night in a Limerick bar.

A spokesperson in the Henry Street garda station in Limerick said: "There was no incident that we know of", while the manageress of the Brazen Head pub, Roisin McQueen, said: "I was the manageress on duty from 7.30 p.m. until we locked up and there was no incident whatsoever."

An IRFU spokesperson also said that they were "unaware of any incident", adding that neither the union nor Whelan had plans to make any statement.