Munster flanker Alan Quinlan has spoken for the first time about his 'massive regret' over the gouging incident with Leo Cullen which saw him miss this summer's Lions Tour of South Africa.
<notforsyndication>Click here to watch an extended interview with Alan Quinlan</notforsyndication>
Quinlan was handed a 12-week ban after appearing to gouge Leinster captain Cullen's eyes when trying to collapse a maul during the Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park last May.
Speaking exclusively to RTÉ Sport's Hugh Cahill, 35-year-old Quinlan acknowledged the severity of the incident and took full responsibility for his actions.
He said: 'It was reckless, it was contact in the eye area and that was my own fault. 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.
'I'm not trying to portray it or paint it up in a different way. It looked bad and it was bad, but from my point of view there wasn't any intention from me to go near Leo's eyes or any player's eyes.'
A solemn Quinlan continued: '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.
'It happened in 0.4 of a second in real time, certainly if you watch it in slow motion it looks a lot longer, I'm not trying to downplay the incident, but I take full ownership of it, it didn't look good, fortunately there was no injury and 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.'
