Wild scenes in England's Champ see coach dismissed for attacking player

A Cornish Pirates coach was red-carded on Saturday following an alleged “slap” on a Worcester Warriors’ Jake Garside in England’s Champ.

The incident occurred in the 72nd minute of the meeting at the Pirates’ Mennaye Field, which the visitors won 29-7.

Footage on the England Rugby YouTube stream shows the moment the incident occurred, as the Pirates chipped the ball into touch while playing with a penalty advantage for a late tackle. A Worcester player can be seen attempting to collect the loose ball after it had gone into touch, before a Pirates coach picked it up. The player tried to wrestle the ball from the coach, before a home player intervened to take the ball.

However, as the Pirates player is seen running back with the ball to where the penalty was awarded, his coach appears to be holding onto the Worcester player’s arm as he tries to work his way back onto the pitch.

The footage cut out to show a replay of the penalty incident, but the jeers from the crowd can be heard through the audio as a brawl erupted between the two teams. The stream returned back to the match, where there was a melee involving players and coaches, with referee Jamie Parr repeatedly shouting “take your own players away”. Watch the incident here:

Once the fracas had abated, Parr can be heard saying to his assistant: “What I haven’t seen is what started it, but I have seen the coach from Cornish Pirates come onto the field of play, and slap one of the players in the face. Is there anything that has started it?”

After an inaudible conference with his assistant, the referee concluded: “We’ve not got anything to start it other than Worcester trying to get the ball into touch, which they’re completely allowed to do because we’ve got a penalty over there. The director of rugby, or one of the coaches, of Cornish Pirates has come onto the field and slapped one of the players, so I’m going to send him off.”

The coach, who appeared to have fled the scene, was then shown a red card, before Worcester confirmed on X that it was their substitute scrum-half Garside who was the victim of the alleged slap.

Worcester left Cornwall victors to remain second in the league table.