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16th Sep 2018

Scrum-half has face “rearranged” by brutal rugby tackle gone wrong

Patrick McCarry

Rugby is back and lads are getting busted up

Simon Zebo has had the pleasure of sharing the pitch with Jamie Roberts (Lions, 2013) and Teddy Iribaren (Racing, 2018). Both men were in the wars this weekend.

Roberts scored an early try in Bath’s 37-32 win over Harlequins. He also got a ripper of a black eye:

Iribaren ended up in a much worse state.

The Racing scrum-half copped a brutal blow near the end of the first half in Racing’s 30-17 loss to Toulouse.

The Racing No.9 was attempting to stop Toulouse outhalf Romain Ntamack (son of France legend Emile) from breaking out of his 22 when the nasty collision took place. Iribaren took Ntamack down but got a stray, accidental boot to the face in return.

Credit: Canal +

Iribaren immediately clutched onto his face as medical staff rushed onto the pitch.

There was a delay of several minutes as the scrum-half received attention. The video below shows a stitched up Iribaren returning to the Racing bench for the second half.

https://youtu.be/yk84iufd3NI

Xavier Chauveau replaced Iribaren and tried to help Racing get a second half foot-hold in a tough away fixture. They looked beaten all ends up when Sofiane Guitoune’s converted try left it 21-3 after 48 minutes but Zebo raced in for his third try of the Top 14 season to reduce the arrears.

Juan Imhoff’s converted score made it 24-17 with five minutes to go but that was as good as it got. Thomas Ramos knocked over two late penalties and Toulouse were good value for their 13-point win.

On the bus ride home, Zebo shared a snap of Iribaren’s face and that eye was swelling up nicely.

Elsewhere in the league, Paddy Jackson’s Perpignan remain bottom after getting stuffed 37-10 bu La Rochelle and Lyon hammered Montpellier. Leaders Clermont beat Pau 27-23 on the road.