CARDIFF captain Callum Sheedy told referee Morne Ferreira an eye gouge on one of his team-mates by an Edinburgh player sparked a mass brawl just before the half-time whistle.
There was no indication of the players involved – or television evidence of the incident – but Sheedy’s complaint to the official was clearly heard.
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Edinburgh’s Pierre Schoeman scores a try against CardiffCredit: Rex
Because of the lack of evidence the referee took no action. Edinburgh won the match 27-8.
The alleged eye gouging incident was the worst in a bad tempered match that saw yellow cards issued to Edinburgh captain Grant Gilchrist and two from Cardiff.
The teams were in each others faces from the word go to the extent that the referee called both captains together early on to warn them about the high number of reckless tackles being put in by both sides.
Edinburgh took the early lead through a penalty from fly-half Ross Thompson as the home side dominated the early stages.
Although Duhan van der Merwe and his fellow Scotland international winger Darcy Graham went close the Gunners couldn’t get over the try line.
Against the run of play Cardiff took the lead when Thomas Young squeezed in at the corner.
Edinburgh captain Gilchrist did his side no favours when he was yellow carded for a high tackle on Cardiff centre Mason Grady.
Young had a touchdown ruled out for offside when Edinburgh were a man down. It was his last involvement for ten minutes as he was yellow carded for an infringement at the ruck.
Van der Merwe had a try ruled out because of a forward pass in the build up just before the brawl at half-time following the accusations of gouging.
The Scotland international winger finally got on the scoresheet early in the second half when he went over in the corner to put his side ahead.
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Sheedy then put over a penalty to cut the deficit to two points.
With the game hanging in the balance prop Pierre Schoeman crashed over to score a vital try which was quickly followed by one from Graham.
There was another clash between both sets of players near the Cardiff line that the referee had to step in to break up.
Josh McNally of Cardiff was shown a yellow card for an infringement at the breakdown before Ewan Ashman went over for his sides fourth try that secured the bonus point with two minutes left.
Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt said on the eye gouging accusations: “We don’t know about that. There were a lot of incidents in that game.
“As you can see there was a lot of friction between the teams on the field and the players were at each other. There was a lot of shenanigans at the breakdown too.”
A Cardiff spokesman said they would be making no comment on the eye gouging accusation made by their captain.
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