You rarely see punches thrown in rugby league anymore but Batley Bulldogs and Bradford Bulls didn’t get the memo as a huge brawl broke out in their 1895 Cup match on Sunday afternoon.
It was the Bulls who progressed to the competition’s quarter-finals in a game that was not without incident as a total of seven cards were shown by referee Scott Mikalauskas.
Four of those went to Batley whilst three went to Bradford with the teams tying on one red card apiece, both as a result of the brawl that erupted late on in the game.
Punching and brawls has almost been eradicated from rugby league at the elite levels as the punishment is typically very harsh, but that didn’t stop it in this game which clearly went past boiling point.
The West Yorkshire derby saw Bradford win 16-12 with Mitch Souter scoring two tries, however, it was Batley’s try-scorer Dane Manning who will be fearing the Match Review Panel with the second-rower seen to throw multiple punches in the brawl.
Watch as huge brawl explodes late in rugby league cup clash
With the score 16-12 approaching the final few minutes, the brawl seemed to erupt out of very little although tensions were already high with several cards already flashed.
Footage of the incident was quickly shared on social media including on the X account @RugbyLFights where fan footage captured from behind the sticks showed the incident but not the spark.
Within that footage, several players were involved in a melee before more piled in. Of those to be initially involved was Batley’s Dane Manning and Bradford’s Tom Holmes with Manning clearly seen to throw punches at the Bulls’ full-back.
Bradford’s captain Michael Lawrence was also taken to the floor as players from both sides piled in.
The Match Review Panel which reviews all the disciplinary incidents in the top tiers of rugby league will have a busy session later this week to work out the resulting charges with several likely to head straight to a disciplinary tribunal for punching.
Batley ended the game with just ten men as Manning was sent off whilst James Brown and Ollie Greensmith were sin-binned earlier.
Bradford drew Sheffield Eagles in the quarter-finals of the competition with that game to be played on the 5th or 6th of April.
You can see footage of the brawl in the video below.
Batley & Bradford bring back the biff in today’s game! 👊🏻💥🔥 #bringbackthebiff pic.twitter.com/r0jO3naWi5
— Rugby League Fights (@RugbyLFights) March 2, 2025
