Players got stuck into each other in the final play of the game.
Tempers flared in the United Rugby Championship as a late tackle on Makazole Mapimpi left him and his teammates outraged.
The incident occurred in the Edinburgh v Sharks match on Friday night. With the score 17-13 to the Scottish side, and the clock in the red, Mapimpi crossed for the match-winner in the corner.
However, in the process of scoring, Edinburgh’s full-back Harry Paterson dived on top of him and hit him with his knee as he tried to stop him scoring. Despite just winning the game for his team, Mapimpi squared up to Paterson and screamed in his face.
This caused chaos between the players, with James Lang getting in Mapimpi’s face and more players flooding to the scene. There was lots of shirt-grabbing from both sets of players but no punches were thrown. Sharks boss John Plumtree, father of Wales international Taine, could be seen laughing in the stands as players got stuck into each other. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
You can watch the footage below.
Replacement Sharks fly-half Siya Masuku missed the subsequent conversion, but it didn’t matter, with the South African side winning 18-17 at Hive Stadium.
This wasn’t the first time things had boiled over in the game, either. With 46 minutes played, Eben Etzebeth and Sam Skinner got into a bit of shirt-pulling, with the South African dragging Skinner to the deck. This caused a large brawl with the majority of players involved. Both Etzebeth and Skinner were issued yellow cards by Andrew Brace.
Cameras followed the pair as they left the field together, continuing to sledge back and forth. It eventually led to Etzebeth shoving Skinner in the back in front of the Scottish crowd, who did not take kindly to it.
You can watch a clip of that below.
The result puts Sharks at the top of the South African Shield on 19 points, and fourth in the United Rugby Championship table on 49 points. Edinburgh, on the other hand, are in seventh place, so within the play-off places, but only one point separates them in DHL Stormers in 10th. In the Scottish/Italian Shield, they are in third place with just 11 points.
