03/06/2006 Reuters Updated:

 

New Zealand rugby fans have produced a bidding frenzy for the chance to own the handbag that reduced a burly All Blacks player to tears.

 

In one of the more bizarre off-field sporting incidents, former New Zealand captain Tana Umaga tangled with Hurricanes club team mate Chris Masoe in a nightclub after losing the prestigious Super 14 tournament final last Saturday.

 

Masoe, who has played two tests for New Zealand, tripped over a man's feet in the Jolly Poacher bar in Christchurch early last Sunday and then hit the unidentified man in retaliation.

 

Umaga, one of New Zealand's greatest players who played 74 tests for the All Blacks, stepped in to break up the scuffle, picking up a woman's handbag and hitting Masoe twice over the head.

 

Rugby players are among the toughest in sport, regularly ignoring the pain of dislocations, head cuts and other aches and sprains but being hit with a handbag was too much for a tired and emotional Masoe.

 

The hefty 1.83 m, 106kg Samoan-born forward dissolved into tears, New Zealand media reported this week.

 

Adding to the indignity, rugby officials fined him $3000 after an inquiry into the incident but let Umaga off because he was trying to calm things down.

 

The unidentified woman who owns the small black handbag has put it up for sale, as well as a broken cellphone that was inside it.

 

The TradeMe Website had received a huge volume of bids for the handbag and phone and just over an hour from close, the top amount was $21,869. A number of bogus bids had been removed with the latest figure believed to be genuine.

 

There was also plenty of humour to go with the nonsense.

 

"Is there any guarantee hitting someone with this will make them cry?" one potential bidder asked on the website.

 

"Does it come with any makeup included? Do you have any matching belts or shoes?" asked another.

So that fight really was "handbags"!!:rolleyes:

Yep..:lol:

 

I think the whole thing is madness,Tana grabs a handbag and hits him on the head,then this girl ends up selling it for 21,000 dollars....

 

Why would anyone buy it??? People are crazy I tell ya!

Yep..:lol:

 

I think the whole thing is madness,Tana grabs a handbag and hits him on the head,then this girl ends up selling it for 21,000 dollars....

 

Why would anyone buy it??? People are crazy I tell ya!

 

True - but I wouldn't be complaining!!:laugh3:

Well that is true,suddenly you made 21,000 dollars going to a bar!!

 

:lol: