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Mass brawl and foul play mar Top 14 Brive-Grenoble match

Independent

A mass brawl and an alleged eye-gouge marred Grenoble's 36-23 Top 14 win over Brive on Sunday night.

Fists flew just before halftime after Brive prop Damien Jourdain was lifted off his feet by his opposite number Sona Taumalolo during a scrum, quickly resulting in a Jourdain punch to his opposite.

Replacement players and staff members were quick to join the melee from the bench as players grappled to the ground and continued to fight for close to a minute.

Three players all saw red with Jourdain, Taumalolo and Grenoble centre Nigel Hunt of New Zealand all red-carded, leaving Grenoble to start the second half with 13 players against 14.

But the worst incident of the night came when Brive flyhalf Matthieu Ugalde appeared to put his hand near the eye area of Grenoble's Armand Batlle.

Batlle had just dived over the line for a try in the 64th minute when Ugalde reached over Batlle's face.