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Rugby

22nd Apr 2018

Virimi Vakatawa collapses to the ground after light push from Conor Murray

Jack O'Toole

Racing centre Virimi Vakatawa collapsed to the Stade Chablan Delmas turf in a heap on Sunday after receiving a light push from Munster scrum-half Conor Murray.

Murray tussled with Racing winger Marc Andreu after the France international attempted to take the ball off of him before the Munster half-back lifted Andreu off of his feet and discarded him to the ground.

Vakatawa reacted immediately and confronted Murray at which point he retaliated by pushing the France international away from him.

Vakatawa, standing at 6 ft 1 and weighing in over 14 stone, dropped to the ground clutching at his face.

Murray conceded a penalty for his part in the incident with referee JP Doyle happy not to discipline the player any further.

Racing opened the scoring after just five minutes when winger Teddy Thomas rounded Munster’s Alex Wootton to score the first try of the game.

Thomas then doubled his tally just over 10 minutes later when he received a draw and pass from Vakatawa after the Fijian went by Murray with a brilliant sidestep.

Racing then crossed for their third try after 22 minutes when Maxime Machenaud touched down after a pass behind the posts from Thomas who spurned the chance for a certain hat-trick.