Athens remain on course for a fourth successive championship after beating Iraklis 31-3 on Sunday to claim their place in next weekend's final where they will meet Attica Springboks

In a game that was tarnished by a series of kicks and punches, littered by a whole pack of yellow and red cards - four of the former and three of the latter - and overshadowed by one mass brawl in the second half, it was Athens who showed that they remain the team to beat in Greece.

This was their 42nd win in a row against Greek opposition. Indeed, they have yet to lose against another Greek team.

Athens, however, may have to do without their influential scrum-half Vassilis Katsakos in the final after he was sent off midway through the second half.

Katsakos had just produced a wonderful searing break to put Georgian wing Oboladze Miriani in for Athens' third try. It appears, however, that as he was passing Iasonas Deligiannidis, Katsakos could not resist a jibe at his opposite number.

The two half-backs began to grapple, sparking a mass punch-up as players from both sides raced from some distance to join in the melee.

Referee George Psaromatis had little option to dismiss the two 9s and might easily have sent off several more, notably the Iraklis front-ranker Giannis Vassiliadis who literally jumped studs down on top of the mass of bodies and the Athens full-back Giorgos Stratigakos who charged in and kicked a body lying prostrate on the ground.

Athens are appealing the red card against Katsakos in the hope that he will be available for the final.

It will be interesting to see if the Federation's disciplinary committee will also consider taking retrospective action against Stratigakos.Vassiliadis, for his part, did get his just reward at the end of the game as he was sent off for launching an extravagant kick at Athens prop Costas Tsampaos as he was lying prone.

Bizarrely, Vassiliadis immediately insisted on shaking hands with the referee and then saluting the crowd as he marched proudly off the field.

In between time, Athens scored five tries and produced glimpses of excellent rugby while Iraklis showed that their game has improved immensely this year, showing great courage in defence. Fitness levels, however, remain an issue and it was noticeable that Athens were only really able to control the game after the 50 minute mark.

OMINOUS START

The game started ominously when Katsakos was shown a yellow card after just eight minutes. Shortly after, Iraklis were awarded a penalty after an Athens player was deemed guilty of not rolling clear of a ruck and Giorgos Gouroumichalis landed the three-pointer.

Athens had the chance to level almost immediately but spurned the opportunity of three points, going for the try instead. It came when the ball was spun left and Georgos Synetos went over in the corner.

Georgos Tsatsaronis missed the conversion and was soon cooling his heels on the bench, a second yellow card for Athens, apparently after throwing in a couple of punches.

Tsatsaronis actually only served seven minutes of his ten-minute sin bin but his place was immediately taken by flanker Nikos Mavreas for a high tackle.

The sin bins affected the fluency of the Athens game and they had to settle for a 5-3 lead at the break.

Iraklis meanwhile, also went down to 14 men when prop Giorgos Tsopanidis was binned for persistently infringing at the breakdown.

Ten minutes into the second half and after sustained pressure close to the Iraklis line - during which time Athens had again chosen not to take an easy three points - the home side's captain Phillipos Sotiriadis crashed over to make it 10-3.

Then came Miriani's excellent try, which was converted by Tsatsaronis, and the dust-up and the atmosphere changed for the worse.

Athens turned the screw and collected further tries from their two other Georgians, lock Levan Gamiashdili and - after the dismissal of Vassiliadis - Lasha Tcheladze.

Tsatsaronis converted both to give Athens a win that while looking comfortable on paper, was anything but.