Munster and Ireland pair Conor Murray and Peter O'Mahony have spoken publicly of their support for their Munster teammate Gerbrandt Grobler.
Grobler, who has been brought in by Munster on a one-year deal as a replacement for Donnacha Ryan, tested positive for steroid-abuse in 2014 and was handed a two-year ban.
It has become the subject of some debate as to whether the Irish province should be willing to employ a player with a documented history of doping.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Murray and O'Mahony demonstrated that as far as they and their Munster teammates are concerned, Grobler has served his time and he or the team should not be faced with external pressures regarding the morality of his being there:
Speaking on TV3 news, O'Mahony had no doubts regarding any perceived ill-effect Grobler's presence would arouse:
It's important that we keep the game clean from an Irish rugby point of view, from a Munster point of view. It is something that needs to be talked about.
As far as I'm concerned with Grobler, he made some bad decisions and he has done his time. He is here with us now as a Munster player and we will stand by him.
Munster and Ireland's scrum-half Murray was equally unconcerned by the prospect of playing alongside someone convicted of doping:
He gets the backing of us as players. He completely accepts what he did, it was wrong, but does that mean he shouldn't play rugby again? I think that is crazy.
I think it is a case by case basis. It was the wrong decision, he was young and foolish. He paid the price for it.
I think everyone deserves a second chance, he has learned from his mistakes.
While the response of both is hardly surprising, their comments would suggest that it has nonetheless been a topic which has been discussed in-house amongst the Munster players.
You can watch the interview with TV3 below.
