LIST | Fans fighting rugby players: 5 of the most shocking clashes

There were ugly scenes following Australia's shock defeat to Argentina in September 2018 as Wallabies player Lukhan Tui clashed with one of the team's own supporters in the stands.

Live TV footage from Fox Sports in Australia showed a fan verbally abusing Tui and a number of other Wallabies players who were still on the field following the 23-19 defeat in Robina.

England’s defeat by South Africa was marred by a post-match confrontation between players Mike Brown and Joe Marler and fans, reported the BBC in 2018. The Harlequins duo exchanged angry words with supporters after England lost their fifth straight Test, beaten 23-12 by South Africa in Bloemfontein.

Rugby was rocked by an unprecedented controversy back in 2007 when Toulouse's Irish lock, Trevor Brennan, violently assaulted an Ulster fan during a Heineken Cup match.

During the Olympic rugby union 1924 final between France and the United States at Colombes Stadium, French fans booed and hissed the American team for the remainder of the game after star player Adolphe Jauréguy was flattened by a hard tackle two minutes after the opening whistle, leaving him unconscious with blood pouring down his face and having to be carried off the field on a stretcher.

In the second half, French fans threw bottles and rocks onto the field and at American players and officials, wild brawls broke out in the stands, U.S. reserve Gideon Nelson was knocked unconscious after being hit in the face by a walking stick, and French fans invaded the pitch at the final whistle, leaving the French team, aided by the police, to protect the Americans.

At the medal ceremony, was drowned out by the booing and hissing of French fans, and the American team had to be escorted to their locker room under police protection

In the late stages of a pool match in the 2003 Rugby World Cup between South Africa and Samoa at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, a drunk Samoan fan ran onto the pitch and attempted to tackle Springbok Louis Koen around the legs as he was kicking a goal. Koen kicked the goal, and inadvertently knocked the fan unconscious with a kick to the head, leaving him having to be taken from the field on a stretcher.