Clayton McMillan defends Munster’s appointment of Roger Randle as attack coach

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan has defended the province’s appointment of his friend and former assistant at the Chiefs Roger Randle as their next attack coach.

Randle was accused of raping a woman in Durban, South Africa in 1997 when he was part of the Hurricanes team that were playing a Super Rugby match there.

He denied the allegations and the charges were withdrawn.

Billy Holland, Mick O’Driscoll and Killian Keane have all resigned from the PGC after the decision to appoint Randle following a process driven by CEO Ian Flanagan and general manager Ian Costello.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, McMillan said: "“I’m well aware of how our supporters and people in the rugby community are feeling about Roger’s appointment.

“I fully respect that people will have an opinion, but it’s not an opinion that is shared by me.

“I’ve known Roger for a long time. I think he’s an outstanding human, well loved by family and people that have worked alongside him for a long period of time.”

“I’m aware that there’s some former players on the PGB [professional games committee] that resigned as a result of this decision and like our supporters, I respect that they all have their reasons for why they did that.”

“As I said before, this is a person who has had an allegation made against him. It didn’t proceed to a legal process, [it was] dropped pretty quickly. But the stigma of that has remained with him.

“But I admire the way that he has, as a rugby player and a coach and a father, dealt with that challenge. He’s played all around the world. He’s coached at the elite level for a long period of time in Italy, France, Japan, New Zealand, Commonwealth Games, Olympic Games, played for the All Blacks. This is a guy who’s highly respected in many parts of the world.”