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WATCH: The shocking French brawl that resulted in 7 red cards
By Online Editors
A weekend derby encounter in Federale 1, the semi-professional level of France’s league system beneath Top 14 and PRO D2, has been described as a boxing match interspersed with some rugby after seven red cards were shown.
Last Saturday’s red-blooded collision between Tarbes and Lannemezan was won by the home side 36-3, but the rugby action wasn’t what was remembered in the aftermath.
Instead, it was the rare level of violence that was on show which resulted in seven red cards being shown - five at the very start of a match that was reportedly more like a boxing gala.
Only three yellow cards were shown when the sides met earlier in the season in a feisty encounter won 28-16 by Lannemezan, but it apparently left Tarbes complaining about being on the receiving end of some cheap shots.
As a result, they were out for revenge in last Saturday’s rematch and an incident in the first action of the game resulted in a seven-minute stoppage after players and management got involved in a terrible fight.
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Both coaches from each team were red-carded along with five players before the match resumed with 13 versus 12 and it eventually finished 12 versus 11 after two more red cards were brandished.
Tarbes’ South African hooker Ulrich Pretorius admitted to ladepeche.fr: “It must be said it is dangerous for everyone, things can turn very quickly." Lannemezan’s Christophe Dulong added: “It is a fight which was much too far.”
The presidents of the two clubs will now hold a joint press conference on Tuesday night calling for appeasement after the president of the Ligue Occitanie de Rugby said their competition was now “the laughing stock of rugby”.
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Latest Comments
You’ve got to look forward to next weekend more than anything too.
They really use this sorta system? Much smaller pool of bonus points available, that would mean they have far less impact. Interestingly you must be withen winning range/chance in France’s Top 14 league, rather that just draw territory, so 6 points instead of 7. Fairly arbitrary and pointless (something the NRL would do to try and look cool), but kinda cool.
I said it Nick’s and other articles, I’m not sure about the fixed nature of matchups in these opening rounds. For instance, I would be interested in seeing an improved ranking/prediction/reflection ladder to what we had last year, were some author here game so rejigged list of teams purely based of ‘who had played who’ so far in the competition. It was designed to analyze the ladder and better predict what the real order would be after the full round robin had completed. It needed some improvement, like factoring in historical data as well, as it was a bit skiwif, but it is the sort of thing that would give a better depiction of what sort of contests weve had so far, because just using my intuition, the matchups have been very ‘level appropriate’ so far, and were jet to get the other end of the spectrum, season ranked bottom sides v top sides etc.
Go to commentsAs a former rugby player, I spent 20 years as a specialist tackling coach in the AFL, SANFL, and Southern Football League. During this time, I was fortunate to be part of teams winning seven premierships. I believe there is a valuable place for cross-code coaching in these sports. I made many lifelong friends and enjoyed sharing knowledge and skills from different sporting backgrounds, which is encouraged at many elite levels.
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