Top 10 rugby thugs

Wynne Gray looks at the greatest thugs of the great rugby nations

1 France: Gerard Cholley

His shadow was frightening enough. It seemed to occupy the entire stairwell as we ascended the staircase at Agen to watch the All Blacks play a French Barbarians side.

A mere "excusez moi" did not seem sufficient, but it did the trick as Gerard Cholley moved his substantial frame to let us pass. The man was gigantic. He was reputed to be 19 stone in his playing days but had ballooned to about 25 stone as we squeezed past.

This was the former Army boxing champ and spud farmer whose deeds in the Tricolores uniform earned him a nice little sinecure as a chauffeur for senior French officials. He was the most feared among a group of men in the 70s who rampaged around France's rugby fields.

He laid out four Scots in one game and on another occasion, when one of his team was beaten up in a match in South Africa, punched out three Western Province players.

When Gary Knight made his All Black debut in 1977, Cholley eye-gouged his opponent and tore his eyelid. The same year before a test against Ireland at Lansdowne Rd, Cholley punched the ceiling in the changing room so hard he put his first through the timber.

His hand swelled to the size of a small melon, but he took the field and France won 15-6.

2 Australia: Steve Finnane

Steve Finnane carried a reputation which earned him the nickname "The Enforcer" during his career.

It was not quite the moniker he wanted to maintain during his subsequent working life in the legal fraternity.

There was widespread outrage when Finnane, in one of his early trips across the Tasman, king-hit young Auckland lock Alan Craig as the pair ambled away from a lineout.

Wales travelled to Australia in 1978 and in their second test defeat also lost tighthead prop Graham Price when his jaw was broken by a vicious punch from Finnane.

"I still get asked about that incident so often, especially every time Wales play Australia," said Price.

"It was very early in the game, before we'd really got warmed up, and I got caught by the shot. I don't think that he set out to do the damage he did, he was just trying to intimidate me.

"But he caught me coming out of a scrum with my jaw at its most vulnerable - open and gasping for air - and the photos obviously went around the world."

3 New Zealand: Richard Loe

1992 was a big year for Loe. In the second test that year at Ballymore, the prop elbow-slammed Wallaby wing Paul Carozza, who had somehow skidded across the tryline on his back without forcing the ball. Loe arrived late and slammed his arm across Carozza's nose.

All hell broke loose from the mouths of various indignant Wallabies but it was nothing to match the outrage felt some months later when Loe eye-gouged Otago's Greg Cooper in the final of the national provincial championship.

The fingerwork was captured on television and made the headline news that evening. Loe was subsequently banned for 26 weeks. He had a year away from All Black duty, but returned to action and played a further two years and reached 49 test appearances.

4 Argentina: Federico Mendez

Mendez was a formidable talent who could play either prop or hooker for Argentina. He made his test debut as a teenager and in his second international, against England in 1990, he was sent off for flooring lock Paul Ackford.

It all came about when English prop Jeff Probyn trampled on Mendez's body and the teenager responded by attempting a Christmas Hold on his rival. Probyn then appeared to stand on the Puma's neck or head.

When an enraged Mendez got back to his feet, Probyn had moved several metres ahead on his dangerous march.

Mendez saw Ackford nearby and - whether he thought the lock was the villain or not is unclear - floored him with a powerful right cross. Ackford took some time before he was resuscitated, helped to his feet and carried off Twickenham.

Meanwhile Mendez, who won 74 caps and appeared at four World Cups, was sent off and easily beat his groggy opponent to the showers.

5 England: Danny Grewcock

A martial arts expert, Grewcock was not so proficient at controlling his temper. The lock was a serial offender who seemed to lose even more control when he played against the All Blacks.

He earned a five-week ban for a kicking offence after being sent off in 1998 at Carisbrook and six years later he copped a six-week suspension after being found guilty of reckless use of his boot on Daniel Carter. When he returned in 2005 with the Lions, Grewcock was banned for two months for biting Keven Mealamu's finger.

At home in 2002 he was outed for five weeks for stamping on halfback Kyran Bracken in a club game, then a year later had a two-week spell for punching Lawrence Dallaglio. There was a one-week standdown for stamping in 2007 and later that year he was banned for several months for punching.

6 Ireland: Trevor Brennan

It was rugby's Cantona moment. In 2007, lock Trevor Brennan, who was contracted to Toulouse, waded into the crowd during a team warmup and socked a spectator.

Brennan claimed he was provoked by chants from spectators before he assaulted Ulster fan Patrick Bamford who was in the crowd waiting for the Heineken Cup clash.

"When I was warming up, I heard a group of supporters sing, 'Brennan, your mother is a whore'," he said. "One of them looked me in the eyes, and again started to sing it.

"I then climbed the wall and had an altercation with this person. I regret this incident. But I didn't initiate it."

Brennan retired to run his Toulouse pub, days before he was due to face a judicial hearing. Another Irish and Munster forward, Peter Clohessy, was known as "the Claw" and opened a nightclub called "The SinBin" next to his Limerick boozer.

Clohessy earned 54 caps for Ireland, his last in the 1999 World Cup quarter-final against the Wallabies, during a career when his exploits earned him an unsavoury reputation as a man who found it easier to deal in filth than football.

He was banned in 1996 for 26 weeks after stamping on French forward Olivier Roumat's head in a Five Nations match in Paris. Roumat also claimed Clohessy had poked his eyes during the tempestuous match.

7 Samoa: Muka Papali'i

Rugby had just resumed in the Pacific in 1955 when Samoa hosted a series against Fiji.

Administrators and officials were doing their best to raise the profile of the sport and wanted to present a clean image. Violence was not going to be tolerated.

In the second test of the series in Apia, Samoan hooker Papali'i was punched and retaliated. The referee did not catch the first culprit, but he had his beady eye on Papali'i. So did the judiciary who wanted to send a message to others involved in sporting violence.

Papali'i went up before the beak where he was charged with bringing the game into disrepute and was banned for life.

He must wonder about modern sentences like eight weeks for eye-gouging when one punch rubbed out his rugby career.

8 South Africa: Johan Le Roux

There are any number of contenders for the title of top South African thug.

Lock Drikus Hattingh committed several horrendous assaults with his boots, the Bester brothers were local hit men and Burger Geldenhuys shamefully broke Andy Dalton's jaw in a Cavaliers match.

Suzie the Waitress would top the hit list for those All Blacks and staff convinced she was behind their food-poisoning drama at the 1995 World Cup in the Republic.

But for historical purposes alone, Johan le Roux takes this award. He bared his fangs in 1994 and took a nip out of Fitzy's ear at Wellington in 1994.

It was stupid attacking New Zealand's icon and plain disgusting to think of this Hannibal Lecter being out on the rugby field. Le Roux was banned for 17 months but the message does not always get through. A fellow countrymen, Wickus ven Heerden, was banned four years later for chomping Waratahs prop Richard Harry.

9 Wales: Ian Powell

There have been several high-profile Welsh cases with the most notorious involving one-test halfback David Bishop who was jailed for a month in the 1980s for punching an opponent.

National hooker Nigel Meek was sentenced to six months in the slammer for assaulting an opponent in a scrum while playing for the Fire Service in 1995.

In recent times, Ian Powell was jailed in 2001, for an incident of "gratuitous violence" when he kicked an opponent and broke his leg in several places.

Judge Peter Jacobs told Powell he had decided to impose a severe sentence because of his increased concern about violent behaviour on the sporting field.

Barnett, 33, needed surgery to fix the fractured bones in his right leg and was told he would never be able to play rugby again.

10 Scotland: Scott Murray

Kiwi whistler Steve Walsh was in the middle of the action when Scottish lock Scott Murray became just the second player to be ordered off for his country.

The first was in 2002 when another lock, Nathan Hines, was banished from a game Scotland was playing in San Francisco. Four years later Murray's exit gained far more attention.

He was playing at Millennium Stadium and had passed a ball when Welsh rival Ian Gough tackled him late. Murray ended up on his back with his legs free and in lashing out he kicked Gough in the face. Walsh saw the incident.

Walsh called up the captains and the players and said: "Under the laws of the game, this man [Gough] tackled this player [Murray] late. Unfortunately for you [Murray], you [Murray] retaliated and struck out and kicked him [Gough] in the head.

"I have no option. You [Murray] are red-carded and you [Gough] are in the sin-bin. Penalty against you [Murray]."

Scott Murray headed off for the changing rooms and into Scots rugby infamy.