For its 30th birthday, this season is all about retro for the Prem.

Regular followers will have noticed how, at the beginning of the season, a player from each of the league’s 10 clubs was photographed in a retro playing jersey. Owing to modern fashion’s penchant for vintage, it sent social media into overdrive. Fans loved it – and they wanted more of it.

To that end, the Prem this week, before its derby weekend, has started to publish full replays of its classic matches on YouTube as part of its 30th anniversary celebrations.

Four memorable derbies will be uploaded to the Prem’s YouTube channel for all to watch, free of charge (as long as you pay for an internet connection). Gloucester 23 Bath 6 in 2011, Leicester 37 Northampton 17 in the 2013 final, and Saracens 39 Harlequins 17 in 2014 for the world-record match at Wembley. Hundreds more will follow, the Prem says, as part of its “PREM30” celebrations.

But, kicking things off, the fourth match to add to that trio will be another instalment of the East Midlands derby, one of the Prem’s biggest matches, featuring one of the most notorious moments in the history of English professional rugby.

The 2011 play-off between the Tigers and Saints will not be remembered for the 11-3 scoreline or the fact that the defending champions set up a final rematch with Saracens at Twickenham a week later, but for the actions of a certain former England centre towards his future international team-mate.

‘The luckiest man in Leicestershire’

At outside centre for Leicester that day was Manu Tuilagi; on the right wing for Northampton was Chris Ashton. In a fiery – when is this fixture not? – first half, both were sin-binned for their involvement in what might be described as a disagreement.

Tuilagi took Ashton out, slightly high, off the ball as the wing attempted to support scrum-half Lee Dickson’s quickly taken penalty. Ashton then gave the 19-year-old, uncapped Tuilagi a little shove on the floor, before the red mist descended on the future England centre.

The live Sky Sports footage missed the incident but Stuart Barnes, on commentary that day, did not. With the cameras following the ball, the former England fly-half shouted: “Wooah! Manu Tuilagi is off – he must be. He has just caught Chris Ashton with a right... I don’t know what led to it but I saw the punch and he has to be sent off.”

Before any replays were shown to either the viewers at home or the Welford Road crowd, Wayne Barnes, the referee that day, discussed the incident with his assistant referee on the Crumbie Terrace side, Robin Goodliffe. Wayne Barnes admitted to having seen nothing more than grappling, having been following the ball, and Goodliffe added: “Both players threw punches at each other and they both connected. Yellow card for both players.”

Given Barnes had not seen the incident, he had to trust his assistant. What followed was the gravest of injustices, a howler of epic proportions. “Tuilagi is the luckiest man in Leicestershire right now,” Barnes said.

After the referee showed yellow cards to both players – Tuilagi without protest, Ashton and team-mates with a look of disbelief – the Sky producers lined up the footage of the incident. Their use of slo-mo for the replay produced one of the most famous, and notorious, Prem images.

“I’ll need to see it back but I saw what I saw and Tuilagi should have gone,” Barnes said.

As the replays rolled on, the scale of the inequity dawned. Tuilagi had tried to obliterate Ashton with two left jabs before a right haymaker connected with shuddering force. “Oooooh,” said Barnes. “Ashton should not be yellow-carded and Tuilagi should be off. Appalling work by the official. It was a shove from Ashton, no more than that, and... bang. Tuilagi will be cited. That is disgraceful. The worst call of the season. Rubbish.” Barnes is unsure whether Ashton has ever forgiven him.

But how the wing remained on his feet, given the force of Tuilagi’s blows and the whiplash to his head and neck, remains a mystery. They do breed them differently in Wigan.

Earlier this year, the BBC reunited the two and, naturally, that incident was a topic of discussion.

Leicester went on to win the match but Tuilagi would miss the Prem final, a loss to Saracens, and would be banned until the day before the first match of that year’s Rugby World Cup, his first for England.

“The first game of the World Cup was the day after [the end of the ban]. I say hello to the England boys at lunch, we’re all sitting down, and Ashy’s just facing me,” said Tuilagi. “He just goes: ‘Why did you do it, mate?’”

Ashton replied: “I remember it, yeah. You didn’t really answer me, did you? You’ve still not really given me an answer! You’ve still not really explained it. He did take me to the cinema, though, as an olive branch.

“While it was happening, I just thought: ‘Mate, you can hit me all you want. It’s a semi-final, go for it! The linesman is right there and he’ll see it. Go on.’ I was almost chucking my chin out, not thinking I would get absolutely melted and that he wouldn’t get sent off!

“And I got yellow carded! I needed the 10 minutes, to be honest. I’m there going: ‘Go on, then, hit me, everyone is here to see it. You’ll get sent off and it’s happy days, we’ll win.’ It didn’t play out like that at all.”

“It actually hurt my hand,” Tuilagi added.

Given the force exerted, both players emerging with a sore hand and a cut forehead was probably the best possible outcome. But you can now be the judge of that, and the whole match, too.