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Mon 7 Dec 2015 | 02:51
Awful spear tackle sparks huge brawl in French third division

8
Comments

On Saturday night in France this brawl kicked off following a really bad looking tip, or spear, tackle in France's Federale 1 division, the third division of rugby in the country. The game was between Nevers and Lombez-Samatan and the fight actually resulted in only two red cards.

As reported and shown by lejdc.fr, the first transgression is the spear tackle by Lombez-Samatan, which leads to a bit of push and shove. It goes on for a while, but eventually spills over into a full on brawl, with pods forming and a few players ending up on the wrong end of mass uppercuts.

When it all died down, the referee chose to send off just two players, with Nevers' Samoan back Fa'atoina Autagavaia being one of them, and the other being Hugues Bastide.

When watching the video back, we're sure the officials will agree that a number of players could have seen red. Unfortunately then the forward packs would have been down to about three a-side.

View more mass brawls and crazy tackles in our Big Hits and Dirty Play section

Posted By: Grant Constable

8 Comments

  • drg
    11:22 PM 10/12/2015

    I hadn't noticed that hand in the face. Got to say had this been an international match there could probably be a case for gouging/fingers in eye area etc... looks like a strange thing to do and certainly didn't go down well!

  • danknapp
    12:01 PM 09/12/2015

    It's definitely rare, yes. Hopefully Georgia will continue to supply us with more of this.

  • drg
    11:03 AM 08/12/2015

    Haha, yeh, I see what you mean, kicks and stamps appear to be his signature. I love the videos dotted about when you see a bloke like him putting in a few little kicks here and there until some big back row just clocks the guy leaving him snoozing on the pitch.

    This reminds me of the old RD, I remember videos like these coming up almost monthly, if not weekly, especially in French D2.. appears it's been pushed out of D2 and into D3..

  • danknapp
    9:32 AM 08/12/2015

    Red 12 is worth a watch. He starts on the left when it all kicks off. As far as I can see he just bounces around, stamping on legs here and there. He deserved a smack if anyone did.

  • colombes
    10:39 PM 07/12/2015

    The best of the beef bourguignon is always the "gnon"

  • stroudos
    7:18 PM 07/12/2015

    Saved us all from another tedious spear tackle debate though, didn't it!

  • jimmy23
    6:15 PM 07/12/2015

    Ahhh, nothing like a good old French rugby brawl :P

    I like how it started off as just handbags, calmed down then BOOM! It all just went to hell.

  • drg
    5:03 PM 07/12/2015

    ^
    What he said...

    It was interesting I was doing my best to follow each player. I watched the whole thing through a number of times. Looking at the two players that got sent off, red and whites, it was the tackler.. which is fair enough, but then following him, he does his best to keep out of it, then eventually plays a part by just walking in the way 90% of the time to try and block everyone, seems at the end he got a battering for his troubles..

    The yellow player who got carded was quite interesting as well, (if correct) he was the full back and appeared to play a massive role in trying to diffuse the situation. Stayed out of the scrappy stuff, pulled players out, then eventually started throwing a few.

    I just find it interesting that it was a 50-50 split carding forwards and backs, judging by the amount of forwards involved, the referee could be forgiven if he'd just carded 2 forwards... but the full back?

    Also interesting was the fact that at the time Red 5 did not receive any punishment - he was; in my opinion, the 3rd man in. Everyone else played a "oh dear it's kicking off, lets slow it down and calm it down role" but he came flying in and dapped the guy that just got ostriched!

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