Ruck stars: Hitting it off in the world of rugby

Josh Lewsey's astonishing attack on his Wasps' team-mate Danny Cipriani was predictably downplayed by the club yesterday. "Rugby is a fiery and physical game and incidents like this happen in training sessions all the time," a spokesman said. "There are no issues. They are friends and team-mates."

No, they don't happen all the time and clearly there are issues between the two, although, funnily enough, they are, or were, friends. The England internationals came to blows after Lewsey criticised the new golden boy for missing tackles during a contact training drill. According to Cipriani, this was after the coach Shaun Edwards – Wasps having lost five of their six games – had "hit home with a few truths and made points clear to some of the guys".

The spokesman was right about one thing – it can be an incendiary game and it is not just the players who are on the receiving end but even referees and spectators.

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There was a threat facing Neil Back, the England flanker, following an extraordinary assault, not on an opponent, but a referee at the end of a supercharged cup final between Leicester and Bath at Twickenham. The Tigers had been leading 15-9 with a few minutes remaining when Steve Lander awarded Bath a penalty try. He ruled that Leicester had been repeatedly killing a ruck close to their own posts.

Bath won 16-15 and Lander, within seconds of signalling the end of the match, didn't know what hit him. "The red mist descended and the next thing I know Lander was lying winded on the turf," Back said. "I had pushed out at the nearest person to me." Back thought he had shoved his opponent Andy Robinson but "unfortunately it happened to be the referee". Back was banned for six months for bringing the game into disrepute.

No such charges were levelled against Willie John McBride's Invincibles, who went through South Africa in 1974 like a wind of change. The Lions, apart from having a brilliant team, took on the Springboks up front. They also decided that when the backlash came they would not be intimidated. Quite the reverse.

The Lions had a notorious call, "99", and when McBride issued it, it was the signal for the tourists to pile into their opponents en masse. After winning the first two Tests, the Lions were engaged in a battle for the third in Port Elizabeth and when Moaner van Heerden kicked a Lion on the floor the first "99" call went up.

The Lions laid into the Boks and even the full-back J P R Williams ran up to target Van Heerden. The Lions had made their point and went on to win 26-9, although more fights broke out. Van Heerden launched a hit-and-run attack on Bobby Windsor, but was paid back with interest and forced to leave the field. Van Heerden's second-row partner Johan de Bruyn lost his glass eye at one point and both warring packs conducted a search. When it was found De Bruyn slapped it back into its socket.

The hapless Lions to New Zealand in 2005 could have done with a 99 or even a call of 999 as they were whitewashed by the All Blacks. In the opening moments of the first Test, Brian O'Driscoll, the Lions captain, was "speartackled" by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu and was invalided out of the tour with a dislocated shoulder. Umaga, the New Zealand captain, denied that there was anything sinister or premeditated about the tackle, but the Lions and O'Driscoll smelt a rat.

The Irishman became one of the most celebrated casualties of the professional era, almost as celebrated as the former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick. Playing in a Test against South Africa in 1994, Fitzpatrick had part of his ear bitten off by the Springbok Johan le Roux. Le Roux's punishment was an 18-month suspension. "If I'd known it was going to be so long," he said, "I should have torn the ear off."

One of the most infamous Heineken Cup moments occurred in 1997 when Pontypridd visited Brive. The match was halted for a few minutes when all 30 players were involved in a brawl. Dale McIntosh of Ponty and Lionel Mallier of Brive were sent off, but that wasn't the end of it. That night players and fans from the two clubs collided in Le Bar Toulzac and all hell broke loose. There were 25 minutes of mayhem, at the end of which police, deploying tear gas, had to separate the warring parties. "It was not possible for my players to turn the other cheek," Eddie Jones, the Pontypridd manager said, "as they were being punched there as well."

Psychology can play as big a part as sheer violence. Playing for England against France in 1992, the hooker Brian Moore managed to get under the skin of Vincent Moscato to an almost unprecedented extent. Moscato was not only sent off but as he was leaving the field he began to cry. He never played for France again.

Nor, for different reasons, did the great Serge Blanco after an extremely rare sighting of the red mist. Early in the 1991 World Cup quarter-final between France and England at Parc des Princes, Blanco fielded a ball inside his 22, claimed a mark and was then late tackled by Nigel Heslop. Blanco punched the Orrell wing on the jaw, prompting a brawl between the two sides. England won 19-10, after which Blanco, one of the finest full-backs the game has seen, retired.

A year earlier, Twickenham witnessed the execution of one of the most devastating punches ever delivered in the amateur game. The victim was Paul Ackford, the perpetrator an 18-year-old schoolboy, Frederico Mendez. Ackford was unconscious before hitting the turf. Apparently it was a case of mistaken identity. Mendez said he had been attempting to hit the England prop Jeff Probyn (who now sits on the RFU's disciplinary panel) because he had "stood on my testicles".

Back to the training ground, and there was a notable contretemps between the hookers, Barry Williams and Mark Regan, during the Lions tour of South Africa in 1997. The fact that they were members of the same party made it all the more interesting although, as they were fighting for the No 2 jersey, the intense rivalry was partly understandable. Lewsey and Cipriani, who play in different positions, do not have that excuse.