you can move a shifter in and out of any gear without a clutch. thats what synchros do.
if your synchros were bad, you're grind going into the gear, even with the clutch depressed.
the shifter popping out is not clutch related. if your clutch was bad, you would rev up with it in gear, but not go anywhere (the clutch would be doing a burnout, so to speak, instead of holding and moving your forward.)