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List of controversial Aszar Rugby Cup matches: Difference between revisions
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List of controversial Aszar Rugby Cup matches (view source)
Revision as of 18:47, 14 February 2022
, 2 years ago→"Scab Slaughter Saturday" (2008)
Line 43:
The first two weeks of the ARC 2008 season had been cancelled due to ongoing strike action, largely over players' pensions. By the third week, a handful of the teams had drafted temporary players, generally from other sports or retirees, to cross the picket lines and provide a full fifteen players. Although most of the scheduled Week 3 games went ahead, they were boycotted by most fans and sports journalists generally preferred to cover the picket lines outside the stadium instead of the amateurish rugby going on inside it. The Faisluns 1st XV, the only team in the league at the time to have come entirely from corporate backing instead of Aszar rugby's traditional union roots, managed to field nearly their entire original team - all but three crossed the pickets. Vasri'ia United, however, showed up to their scheduled away game with a team made entirely of rookies.
Vasri'ia began '''2008-VSRU-F1XV-1''' with a long kick-off, but as Faisluns looked to gain possession, the individual Vasri'ia players found their opposite number, and immediately and intentionally dealt season- or even career-ending injuries to the Faisluns players. In 2022, amongst other revelations about [[Posol Industries]], it transpired that the Vasri'ia United manager, Tsantóras Akura, had recruited most of the players from them as hitmen. Posol Industries had also supplied them with fake identities, an escape route through [[Faisluns-Handelvaar-Tømmer|Fantøm]] and the bare minimum understanding of the game of rugby necessary to complete the job without anyone catching on.
Of the fifteen Faisluns players on the pitch at the time, twelve were hospitalised with a wide array of injuries including puncture wounds from studded boots, broken bones, concussions, and blinding. The remaining players escaped with mere black eyes. Ten were still on injury leave by the end of the 2008 season, in which F1XV came 16th out of 16, subsequently being relegated to the League Shield division for 2009 - the only two seasons in which the Faisluns 2nd XV outperformed the 1st XV. Seven never played again.
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