A rugby league game between Ireland and Serbia was the scene of a truly shocking incident yesterday, when the Serbian coach encroached on the field and punched an Irish winger in the face, triggering a mass brawl in which another Irish player was kicked in the head as he lay on the ground.
Ireland were facing Serbia in a friendly match in the Police Stadium in Serbia. The game was the Rugby League equivalent of a Churchill Cup type affair. Serbia would be a grade lower than Ireland among rugby league playing nations, so the Irish team used the opportunity to play a lot of amateur and up-and-coming players.
Ireland were leading an entertaining game 24-16 when chaos broke out in the 65th minute.
Dr. Mick Molloy, the chairman of Rugby League Ireland, was watching the game via a live feed from his home in Dublin. He spoke to us about the incident.
What happened was the Irish winger had scored two intercept tries and Serbia were attacking. One of their players dropped the ball, he (the Irish winger on a hat-trick) chipped it up and was just at the point at picking it up with none of their players around him and was clear to run along the sideline and the (Serbian) coach came on and punched him and knocked him over... It's completely bizarre, you've seen blooper reels like this in American football where somebody runs on, does something stupid and then tries to hide. Effectively, that's what happened.
Unsurprisingly, an Irish player retaliated and remonstrated with the Serbian coach. The Irish coach sought to cool the situation, but this only ended provoking a violent response from the Serbian players.
Our own coach, who is not a physically aggressive or a violent person, went over and tried to get the Serbian coach away from the incident without throwing punches. He was trying to cover him and walk away from everybody. He got punched and kicked in the middle of it.
The police were on hand and asked the Irish players whether they wished to press charges. The players demurred and expressed their eagerness to get out of there.
It was quite scary for the players. It was in the police stadium in Serbia and the police got involved and wanted to know if the Irish team wanted to press charges and they said no, they just wanted to put it behind them and get out.
The referee's decision to abandon the game made little difference as the Irish players were not playing on anyway.For what it's worth, the ref also awarded Ireland the game 24-16, but given that this was only a friendly, this matters little.
One of the most sickening episodes of the brawl was the sight of one Irish players being kicked in the head as he lay on the ground.
One of the Irish players was being kicked in the head... It was very disturbing, I have to say.
