A MASS brawl broke out during the clash between Northampton and Munster in the Heineken Champions Cup.
The match erupted into a 30-man free-for-all on 54 minutes, with Lewis Ludlam and Munster flanker Jack O’Donoghue being binned.
The Northampton were chasing the game when the tempers flowed over as the referee was forced to hand out two yellow cards to players.
Just after the punch-up, replacement scrum-half Craig Casey took out wing James Ramm in the air as he attempted to catch the ball and score leading to his yellow card.
Munster were able to hold off Northampton in the second half despite being dominated for much of it.
They won the game 17-6, handing the opposition their second Champions Cup defeat on the spin.
Munster coach head Graham Rowntree was happy with the win as he said after the game: “Huge, huge win for us and in the manner that we did it, we dug in there.
“Most of the second-half, we were on our own goal line, three yellow cards.
“I’m proud of them, really proud of them. Our defensive effort there was exceptional.
“The lads have done a lot of good work there with Denis Leamy. He has been great for us, he’s really grown into a very good coach.
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“So, the nature of the win, we would have liked for it to have been more glamorous, scoring tries, but to dig in like that, that’s massive for us going forward.”
On the brawl, Rowntree admitted that he did not see what caused it but it will be reviewed: “We will have a look at that this week on review and look at our actions there.
“I’m not going to get into it now. We need to look at things calmly after the event.”
