BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

The boss of Harlequins RFC has apologised for drunken rowdiness by members of the rugby club's backroom staff in a city hotel at the weekend.

The team staff – who were guests in the Carlton Hotel on the Dublin Road – had to be warned several times to keep noise levels down in their rooms and the corridors in the middle of the night.

And Harlequins’ Head of Rugby Operations Graeme Bowerbank had to “marshal” the corridors from 4.30am to 6am with hotel staff to ensure the rowdy guests kept noise down.

Yesterday morning, the team’s Director of Rugby Conor O’Shea rang the hotel to formally apologise for what happened.

It’s understood that the team, backroom staff and supporters returned to the hotel on Saturday night after celebrating their Heineken Cup win over Connacht before an 8,000-plus attendance at the Sportsground.

The residents’ bar closed at 3am and the party moved upstairs to the rooms and two corridors.

Carlton General Manager Shay Livingstone told the Sentinel there was “no trouble whatsoever” other than noise problems.

“There was no trouble whatsoever, no physicality whatsoever. It was all just drunken rowdiness, and they were disturbing some other residents in the corridors. There was no damage caused, and at no point did we consider ringing the guards.

“Conor O’Shea rang me [yesterday morning] to apologise on behalf of the team, which I accepted. The team have stayed here a number of times, and they are more than welcome to stay here again,” said Mr Livingstone.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel