Six players were sent off after what the Irish Independent describes as a "vicious brawl" (and also - with gross understatement - as an "unseemly fracas"!) between Rathnew and Stratford, ten minutes from the end of a Senior league game. A Stratford player ended up hospitalised after being knocked out, while a Rathnew player lost two teeth. A 'witness' speaks:
"It was one of the worst incidents I have seen at a match in a long time, with punches flying in from all sides and angles. Blood was spilled as the fighting spread from the '45 to the 14-metre line and it lasted for several minutes."When the fighting finally ground to a halt, three players from Stratford and two more from Rathnew were lying prostrate on the ground. The game took 25 minutes to restart after two ambulances had been and gone, and three players from each side were sent off.
How or why the referee didn't abandon this game is beyond me!
The Wicklow County Board will launch an investigation into the brawl after they receive the referee's match report. He's probably still writing it.
Incidentally, Stratford ended up winning the game by seven points against the eleven-men of Rathnew, who had a player sent off earlier in the game.
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