The word mêlée originated in France and having watched the video below, we are starting to get an understanding as to why.

There is nothing like a spear tackle to inflame an entire team of rugby players, which is what happened when Nevers were playing Lombez-Samatan in the Federale 1 division on Saturday evening. 

The general theme of these fights is that there is one lad who just will not give up. In this case there were a few of those lads. The fight was taking place in several locations at one point and while we can't quite see how many punches landed, there seemed to be a few hay makers.

The referee brandished two red cards at the end of the melee and there will surely be an inquiry into the entire situation on Monday morning.