On a weekend when rugby fever was sweeping the nation, perhaps Hamilton were just getting into the spirit. At least, that’s if you subscribe to Hibernian midfielder Marvin Bartley’s theory about their approach to this bruising draw that was played out at the Superseal Stadium on Saturday.

The combative Englishman is no stranger to the physical side of the game, but he agreed with his manager Neil Lennon’s assessment that the home side had resorted to “cavemen” tactics in order to drag themselves back into the contest after Simon Murray’s first-half opener for the visitors. In fact, Bartley reckoned that he hadn’t come up against such strong-arm tactics since playing rugby at school.

“I thought we played very well first half, but it got a bit more physical, to say the least,” said Bartley. “You need a strong referee in the middle and, unfortunately, we didn’t have that.

“The manager was unhappy with some of their challenges – and he wasn’t the one receiving them, so you can imagine how the players felt.

“Listen, I’m a physical player myself but I try and play within the laws of the game. But some of their tackles were shocking and that’s putting it mildly.

“Have I come up against that kind of approach before? Yeah, when I played rugby at school, that was the last time it was like that.”

Bartley’s midfield partner John McGinn came in for some particularly close attention from the Accies players after running a first half that Hibs dominated entirely. In truth, the fact that Hamilton were still within touching distance and able to pull themselves level with their only attempt at goal in the entire game had as much to do with Hibs’ wastefulness as any increased physicality from the hosts.

And due credit must also be given to Hamilton manager Martin Canning, who changed his 3-5-2 formation to match up to Lennon’s 4-4-2 diamond at the interval, thus allowing his side to exert at least a measure of influence in the middle of the park.

That wasn’t the way Bartley saw it mind, and he went as far as to say that Hibs may have to adjust their own approach if teams are going to try to rough them up.

“You don’t want to sink to those levels and do that to other professionals but there’s going to come a point where…I’ve been sent off a couple of times for coughing on players and those red cards were subsequently rescinded,” he said.

“But if that’s the way opposing teams are going to play then I’m more than up for it. We’ll dig in and start to protect ourselves – within the laws of the game.

“This was maybe less about Hamilton and more about the referee because if you keep pushing and pushing and you’re allowed to get away with it then you’re just going to keep doing it and it’s going to get worse.

“I can’t have a go at Hamilton for doing it because if the referee had implemented the rules firmly they couldn’t have got away with it but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”

The equaliser when it did come was conjured up from nowhere by the industry of Dougie Imrie and the magic of David Templeton, with the former robbing Bartley and feeding the latter to chip a delightful ball onto the head of Antonio Rojano in the area. The forward still had work to do, but he got his neck into his header and managed to help the ball over Ofir Marciano and in. Picking it out of the net was the only time the Hibs keeper dirtied his gloves.

That didn’t bother Imrie though, and neither did the sniping from the visiting camp over Hamilton’s tactics. They are now five games unbeaten, and that is all that anyone in the red and white was concerned about.

“That’s Neil Lennon’s opinion if the game, but for me, when we matched them in the second half we stopped them playing and deservedly got the equaliser,” said Imrie.

“It probably wasn’t one of our best performances, but over the piece, I think we deserved a point.

“There were a few niggly tackles in the game, but I think against these types of teams you have to be up tight against your man.

“If you allow teams like that to play, they’ll kill you.”