Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Federico Mendez knocks out Paul Ackford

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Federico Mendez knocks out Paul Ackford - Eng v Arg 1990

This is the haymaker of all haymakers. Possibly the most legendary, and at the same time infamous, punch seen on a rugby field to date.

Argentina's 18-year-old prop Federico Mendez leaves the pitch after being sent off following a punch that laid out England's Paul Ackford. Mendez was winning only his second cap.

He would later claim that he had been provoked by opposing prop Jeff Probyn, whom he accused of stamping on him, and that he had meant to hit Probyn.

England won the match 51-0, avenging a 15-13 defeat four months earlier, and secured their first grand slam for 11 years later that season.

Labels: Argentina, Federico Mendez

good punch no denying it, would be better if he had been toe to toe instead of throwing a cheap one though

By Anonymous, at July 19, 2007 4:40 pm
What did happen to Geoff Probyn?

By Anonymous, at July 19, 2007 5:48 pm
Tiiiiimber!!

By Anonymous, at July 19, 2007 6:22 pm
nice punch...

By Anonymous, at July 19, 2007 8:20 pm
Mendez Legend¡¡¡. Soth America¡¡¡¡

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 5:23 am
he got stomped on his head so i guess thats why he was bloody pissed off.. poor england dude didnt even see it coming.. smack!! haha

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 7:32 am
No. Mendez is not a legend. And this isn't funny.

It's disgraceful, and Mendez is a disgrace.

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 8:01 pm
So your telling me that you wouldnt like to exchange some words and maybe a fist or two with someone who has raked down your neck and the side of your head??? yes its bad for the sport but in heated moments your personality reacts and you do what you do! and in Mendez case he punches...(the wrong person!)

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 8:06 pm
Really funny, once he gets stomped in the head and get, when he gets up he punches the nearest dude around... LoL poor lock dindt see it coming

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 9:58 pm
jajaaj sublime

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 11:07 pm
"So your telling me that you wouldnt like to exchange some words and maybe a fist or two with someone who has raked down your neck and the side of your head???"

all gd and well but it wasn't ackford that did the raking.
it wasnt and exchange like they were toe to toe or something. he just hit him in the side of the head

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 11:33 pm
what a punch.

brian moore is the worst commentator on tv, and shouldnt be allowed to speak english.

By Anonymous, at July 21, 2007 1:48 am
heheheheh stuip english prick got what he deserved

By Anonymous, at July 21, 2007 11:36 am
Yeh H i see know what your saying, and it was a cheap shot to a guy who wasnt looking, i was just saying that i would throw a punch if someone did that to me!!! although Mendez deserved it for punching the prop in the balls!

By Anonymous, at July 21, 2007 4:38 pm
mendez deserved to be stood on the head, he was punching the guys family jewells! Disgusting. and so what if he was getting stood on with the guys other foot? (which isn't even clear) It's rugby, deal with the raking then dish it out later. It was a collapsed scrum, shit happens.

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2007 4:38 pm
There is no way Mendez thought he was punching the right person. I shit on argentina

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2007 4:41 pm
oh yeah, what a punch, that´s for you fuckers!AGUANTE ARGENTINA

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2007 8:26 pm
cocaine addict like maradona...that prick

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2007 9:26 pm
grande fede mendez!!!

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2007 6:56 pm
argentina VS England:

P 13
argentina:
W 3
L 9
D 1

Lol. Third world pussios

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2007 11:57 pm
Guys there is no need to be racist about it! Mendez dost speak for the whole of Argentina! Like i said earlier he was pissed off with have his head stood on (which is fair enough) and punched the guy he thought did it! Yes its not a good image for rugby, but as anyone that plays rugby knows it is far from a clean game, a lot of things happen in mauls, scrums and rucks!!! So just appreciate the video which is showing the whole reason for such a well known punch!

By Anonymous, at July 25, 2007 2:08 am
Re the anonymous comment spouting stats.

England vs All Blacks:
Played 29
England:
Won 6
Lost 22
Drawn 1

Does this make England 1st world pussies?

Pull your head in mate, one asshole doesn't mean the entire team/country is bad.

By fishboy, at July 26, 2007 4:13 am
England is slowly slipping into a 3rd world country Fishboy!

Think our rugby at the world cup will prove that

By Anonymous, at July 26, 2007 12:36 pm
I shit on england. we beat you in twickenham WEAKSS. you must learn about the amateur spirit of rugby in Argentina and admire that. and dont mix argentinian football with rugby, there are two diferents things

By Anonymous, at July 26, 2007 5:24 pm
wat about a war then, one of the key reasons for the rivallary in both sports?

By Anonymous, at July 26, 2007 7:28 pm
respect for 18 year old guy playing prop in international rugby!

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2007 3:36 pm
why does the presenter guy have to make a shitty little pun at every opportunity, someone should tell him hes not funny

By Anonymous, at July 28, 2007 3:29 pm
typical argy scum

By Anonymous, at July 29, 2007 2:16 am
You english suck, you have no chances on this worldcup, we will see which team show more rugby spirit and to take an obvious example who goes a longer way.
ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!

By Anonymous, at July 29, 2007 5:26 am
this video has ben up for like two weeks, RD, put up some new videos! :)

By Anonymous, at July 29, 2007 12:10 pm
I'm in Australia on holiday for a while. I'll try get some new stuff up tomorrow. Until then, why not look through the Super 14 Plays Of Week clips. Theres always big hits and funny incidents worth seeing in there.

By GMC, at July 29, 2007 2:08 pm
With regards to the anonymous who said "You english suck, you have no chances on this worldcup, we will see which team show more rugby spirit and to take an obvious example who goes a longer way.
ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!ARGENTINA!"

yes english rugby has gone down hill since the last worldcup, buuut the odds on Argentina actually winning the world cup are significantly worse than Englands.... soooo maybe you should STFU!

By Anonymous, at July 29, 2007 8:36 pm
fuk you english. remember this, we will meet in the semi finals and we will crash you as we did in our last test match.
try not to step on anyone in the ground or a second row might get hurt again

By Anonymous, at July 30, 2007 12:02 am
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Anonymous, at July 30, 2007 3:58 am
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Anonymous, at July 30, 2007 11:39 am
any chance of any new videos lol i check this sight regularly and usually there's some new videos every week but there hasn't been for a while thanks

By Anonymous, at July 30, 2007 8:35 pm
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 12:16 am
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 2:55 pm
Alright guys, enough of the unwaranted abuse. Keep things clean on here or have your comment deleted, simple as that.

Constructive discussions are encouraged, but slinging insults like a bunch of 14 year old girls is totally uncalled for.

Welcome diversity, don't chase it away.

By GMC, at August 01, 2007 3:06 pm
Awwww the comments were really starting to get funny then!!!!

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 3:18 pm
Awww Ref! I didn't even get to see my Arch Enemy's pithy retort. I bet it was witty - for a 14yo girl :)

RD Admin: any way of enforcing names for comments? It's getting confusing with so many anonymouses around here...

By fishboy, at August 02, 2007 5:28 am
it was me fishboy, i thought it was funny, it wasnt insulting, didnt think it would get took off, the comment after mine was pretty bad thogh, think he spoilled it for the rest of us!

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 1:28 pm
so argies rekon they can go the way in the knockouts they are forgetting one thing they have to beat ireland or france in the groups to stand event the slightest chance which in itself would be going some.

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 4:48 pm
aw i didnt get to read the two deleted comments, what were they about ste?

By Anonymous, at August 05, 2007 1:02 am
I´m argentinian, of course what Mendez did isn´t funny. But in that moment he was a 18 years old player. Was his first tour and one of his first match with Pumas and they were lossing for to much points. After that he has been a great player, nobody can say he was a dirty player and several time he has recognised his mistake, so I think that can happen to any player in the word...

By Anonymous, at September 18, 2007 7:41 am
haha. toughfin up u big woman

By Anonymous, at September 20, 2007 5:26 pm
jajaja
it isnt funny... im argentinian...

but it was a great punch!!!!

haha

By Anonymous, at October 21, 2007 2:09 am
u are all gay cz england rule n there iz no question

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2008 9:21 pm
He ran away like a bit of a willy afterwards, pity the england No 8 didnt connect. Inexcusable, but he did get his head stamped on, which is just as bad as the punch.

By Anonymous, at April 03, 2008 4:50 pm
"so argies rekon they can go the way in the knockouts they are forgetting one thing they have to beat ireland or france in the groups to stand event the slightest chance which in itself would be going some."
well, it appears you were wrong

By James, at April 03, 2008 6:34 pm
dude cracked him in nuts any wonder he got stamped he then has cheek to punch wrong bloke. Argentina dirty and always will be

By Anonymous, at April 03, 2008 8:52 pm
that guy should have been featured in a rocky film

By Anonymous, at April 04, 2008 3:01 am
Is it only me who sees that Mendez completey deserved getting stamped on as he punches the guy in the balls several times before!!!

By Anonymous, at April 04, 2008 1:38 pm
The English suck. Nice track suits you fairies. Spot the guy with wobbly legs. ha,ha,ha

By Anonymous, at April 04, 2008 6:08 pm
Anouymous Number 2 - Pause at 1:04& see that Probyn fell over. Hahahahahahahaha!

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 9:20 pm