Alan Quinlan believes IRFU did a u-turn on the potential long term signing of Gerbrandt Grobler.
The player’s coach Johann Van Grann confirmed that the player will join English side Gloucester next season.
Former Munster man Quinlan thinks a deal was in place with the English Premiership side before he signed with Munster.
"I'll tell you what was going to happen - when he signed last year from Racing 92, he signed a three-year deal with Gloucester Rugby to commence next year, and for one-year he was going to Munster.’
The South African player faced backlash when details of his two-year ban for doping resurfaced in January, ahead of his completive debut for the province in February.
The player was banned from 2014-16 after he admitted to taking an anabolic steroid.
Alan Quinlan believes the IRFU may well have changed their mind. The former lock thinks that a deal to see the player stay at Munster was more or less agreed between Munster and the Irish Rugby Football Union.
“I think because there was an option to change that during the year, there was a buyout clause, and the talk was Munster were going to sign him - but obviously with all the stuff that happened in January I'd say the IRFU did a u-turn and said look: ‘in hindsight this is not the best idea,’ and they pulled back on allowing Munster to sign him. It was more or less agreed that he was going to stay."
You can listen to the full interview above with Alan Quinlan from this morning's OTB AM.
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