Video: A big brawl between Ireland and South Africa from 16 years ago features in the Rugby HQ Top 5 this week
Are we the only ones that can’t actually remember this so-called ‘Battle in Pretoria’ at all?
There may well be a reason we can’t remember much of that game because one tends to try and forget games in which Ireland failed to score a single point, as was the case when Warren Gatland’s Ireland took on the Springboks in Pretoria on a tour of South Africa in 1998.
It was revisited this week as part of the ‘Forwards Gone Wild’ Top Five on Rugby HQ, which features a combination of forwards doing things they really shouldn’t be on the pitch – like trying a box kick from behind their own try line – or beating the living crap out of the opposition.
Ireland’s battle with South Africa was so bad that it was worthy of second place on the list behind Australian forward Michael Brial throwing about 100 punches in the direction of New Zealand’s Frank Bunce in 1996; Bunce barely flinched and Brial merely got a talking to for his actions. Those were the days, eh?
If the clip above has piqued your interest in the Battle in Pretoria, meanwhile, you can see a little more of it below…
Video via YouTube/FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA
