“Disgusting scenes — absolutely disgusting scenes. I don’t know how it happened, but you cannot react like this. That’s absolutely disgraceful.”
So uttered Jonathan Davies from the TV commentary box amid the stormy events which followed the U20 World Championship pool shoot-out between Wales U20s and their France counterparts in 2008.
The match took place in Swansea, and if the scenes didn’t involve tables being turned over and chairs being cracked across heads, with the obligatory old guy playing a piano in the corner, there was still more than a touch of the Wild West about what unfolded at the Liberty Stadium.
Rare in a high-profile match in modern rugby do differences of opinion come to anything much.
Usually, the odd scuffle is brought into play, perhaps countered in kind.
But this was different. It was 13 years ago this summer when an exciting young Welsh side, containing the likes of Sam Warburton, Leigh Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies, Dan Biggar and Rhys Webb, were playing France for a place in the semi-finals of the World Rugby U20 Championship.
More drama than Harold Pinter would have dared to imagine arrived in the final minutes as Wales fought back from 10 points down. First, the hosts were awarded a penalty try by Australian referee James Leckie as they piled pressure on the opposition defence; then, with time running out, the ball was moved wide for Halfpenny to cross amid Welsh players lining up for the pass.
Leigh Halfpenny celebrates scoring a try for Wales Under-20s in 2008
(Image: Huw Evans Agency)
Strangely enough, French players didn’t queue up to pat the scorer on the back and say: “Well done, mon ami — bonne chance for your meeting with New Zealand in the semi-finals.”
Instead, within seconds of the referee blowing the final whistle for a 23-19 Wales win there was an almighty flare up.
Webb’s wink
The spark which ignited the ugly scenes was apparently an innocuous Cristiano Ronaldo-style wink from Rhys Webb in the direction of a French player. It may not have been the most sensitive moment of the scrum-half’s time in rugby, perhaps explaining why he never opted for a career in the diplomatic service, after all.
But the reaction didn’t merit what followed.
Mayhem erupted, forcing home skipper Warburton to cut short a TV interview in which he had been describing the triumph as “the best moment of my life”.
Video footage also shows the shocked reaction of a young Halfpenny, whose celebrations were halted as the clashes erupted. Both countries were later hit by suspended fines with France having three players banned and Wales seeing one given time on the sidelines.
As the skirmishes broke out in front of the main stand, some two dozen players were involved, with coaches and support staff trying to halt the mass punch-up.
Wales’ head coach that day, Patrick Horgan, remembers: “Everyone on our side was elated and understandably so because it had been a superb win.
“I think one of the French boys went to shake Rhys’ hand.
“Rhys winked at him and gave him a big grin. There really was nothing in it, but a French player ran out of the stand area and head-butted our tight-head prop, Pat Palmer, who had been standing next to Rhys.
“All hell then broke loose. Their boys piled in and so did ours and for a few seconds it threatened to get out of hand.
“Our team manager Bob Beale, forwards coach Wayne Jones and myself tried to get down to intervene and Rob Appleyard did the same.
Violence erupts at the Liberty Stadium after the Wales Under-20s v France Under-20s match in 2008
Wales and France Under-20s players fight at the end of the match
(Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency)
“Eventually it settled but not before a lot of pushing and shoving and whatever else. They eventually had three players banned while we had just the one, Jevon Groves. I felt sorry for him because he had been singled out and I also felt a bit for the French. “
Let’s not jump ahead to the suspensions yet, mind.
The day’s differences were still not done.
The hotel stand-off
The Marriott hotel
(Image: WalesOnline/Gayle Marsh)
Fate would have it that both sides were staying in the same hotel during the tournament. And when the Welsh players arrived back, they did so at the same time as the blokes they’d been scrapping with barely 90 minutes earlier.
“It was in the Marriott Hotel in Swansea and there was this stand-off in reception,” recalls Horgan.
“For a few seconds there was a chance it could have kicked off again, so I told our boys to go home and come back at 4pm the following day. We organised lifts for the boys and they left the scene to take the sting out of the situation.”
The lift incident
There was still time for the wing Jimmy Norris to be confronted by the half-man, half-mountain that is Mathieu Bastareaud. It was Norris’ misfortune as he went up to his room to collect some personal effects to find the French giant in the same elevator.
And Bastareaud wasn’t exactly the most agreeable travelling companion.
“Jimmy came downstairs as white as a sheet,” laughs Horgan.
“He didn’t have a lot of colour, anyway, but it had really drained from him at that point.
“He said he’d been stuck in a lift with Bastareaud, who had apparently wanted to take him on, saying: ‘You, me — now’.
”There was about five or six stone difference in size so I guess you can see why Jimmy had lost a bit of colour.”
Peace in our time
The following day the Welsh players returned to the hotel, to be greeted by opponents who had morphed into Zen mode.
“The French boys shook the hands of our players and wished them all the best for the rest of the tournament,” says Horgan, now coaching Neath RFC.
“We were staying there for another week or so together, so it made sense to get on.
“By the end of the tournament, the players were quite friendly.”
What happened next?
Wales came unstuck against New Zealand in the semi-finals. But the group which faced France contained 10 players who went on to win senior international honours, with Warburton — who was immense throughout the tournament — Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies, Justin Tipuric, Webb and Dan Biggar progressing to the Lions.
Just 18 at the time, Tipuric had featured among the replacements against France, with Josh Turnbull, Dan Franks and Warburton starting in the Wales back row..
A promising career appeared to beckon for Franks, only for injuries to hit him hard and he stopped playing seriously after going to university. You can read how his life turned out here.
Rhys Williams, an inside centre in the Scarlets’ set-up, went on to switch to 13-a-side, doing well enough to play in Super League.
Dan Evans won two caps for Wales at senior level in 2009, while props Ryan Bevington and Scott Andrews also played in Tests.
Jason Tovey, Rhys Lawrence, Haydn Pugh and Jevon Groves were to go uncapped on the senior scene.
All were on duty when the Battle of Swansea unfolded all those years ago, when a wink triggered disorder on a grand scale.
The exuberance of youth?
You could call it that.
Those scenes will stick in the memory of all who witnessed them, though.
Wales U20 team that faced France in the U20 World Championship in 2008: Dan Evans (Scarlets); Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Rhys Williams (Scarlets), Jason Tovey (Dragons); Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Webb (Ospreys); Ryan Bevington (Ospreys), Rhys Lawrence (Ospreys), Scott Andrews (Cardiff Blues), Haydn Pugh (Scarlets) Jevon Groves (Cardiff Blues), Sam Warburton (capt, Cardiff Blues).
Replacements: Ryan Prosser (Bristol), Sam Hobbs (Cardiff Blues), Patrick Palmer (Cardiff Blues), Lloyd Phillips (Scarlets), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Gareth Williams (Ospreys), Luke Ford (Cardiff Blues).
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