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Mon 13 Jun 2016 | 10:16
James Haskell humble after smashing tackle on David Pocock

22
Comments

James Haskell put in arguably the best performance of his career as he helped England to a famous victory over the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday. The veteran flanker started the match with huge intent, making this crushing tackle on David Pocock within minutes of kick off.

The 31-year-old has now been capped 69 times for England, but has said quite openly that he finally feels a core part of the team under new coach Eddie Jones.

Haskell received major plaudits post match, with both Sky Sports and Fox Sports Australia naming him as their Man of the Match, heaping praise on a fantastic performance.

He posted this photo yesterday and said that he was honoured to have swapped jerseys with Pocock after the match. He also said that he's never had this many people be so nice to him.

Well known for his banter and boisterous behaviour, Haskell showed great humility post match, deflecting praise and also mentioning the work former Wallaby George Smith has done during his time at Wasps in England.

"He turned up to Wasps, won all the awards we had, won all the awards in the Premiership and he's left, so I didn't want to let him down," Haskell told Fox Sports.

"He's (Smith) worked tirelessly with us and especially me, and tonight it came off, some nights it doesn't. So I'm not getting carried away, but for an old dog like me it's quite nice to have a bit of a moment in the sun."

England will now prepare for the second Test in Melbourne, and the Hask is already back to his role as entertainer on social media, posting this video yesterday of him chatting to Ben Teo.

There's a mention of the tackle on Pocock in there, with Haskell saying he thinks it must have been someone else who did it. He also rated Teo as a 8 out of ten in the looks department.

Pocock was unfortunately injured later in the match and will play no further part in the series, after fracturing his eye socket in contact at a ruck.

That, and the dominance they showed in Brisbane, will give England even greater belief that they can go on to win a historic first ever series down under.

- HIGHLIGHTS OF ENGLANDS 1ST TEST WIN OVER AUSTRALIA

Posted By: Grant Constable

22 Comments

  • sjaaks
    2:05 PM 18/06/2016

    Is this you God? These are like exactly the words I was looking for. Thanks for clearing this up. Hey how about this Mercedes Benz I asked you for last month?

  • danknapp
    6:14 PM 16/06/2016

    "A player must not tackle nor tap, push or pull the foot or feet"

    Haskell didn't go near his feet. Upper legs maybe, waist probably. Pocock jumped so that a ball which should have hit him in the head hit him in the ribs. Haskell was committed, and due to Pocock's jumped fucked him up a little. Bloody lovely. Close the thread, this conversation is done.

  • danknapp
    6:10 PM 16/06/2016

    Pocock jumped to catch a shitty pass rather than stretch and take it at head height. If we were being absolutely daft about the 'not tackling someone who doesn't have a foot on the ground' we would only be allowed to tackle walking players, not running ones, seeing as having one foot on the ground at all times is the f*****g definition of walking.

    The laws were not designed to stop this sort of tackle. It was a hospital pass, end of.

    If we were going to continue taking the piss out of our sport, we'd cite Haskell for this, and then we'd see players starting to jump to catch balls whenever a player is charging them down, safe in the knowledge that any contact is 'taking a man in the air'.

  • c_gillon
    4:37 AM 15/06/2016

    I never thought I'd see 'Haskell' and 'humble' in the same sentence....

  • drg
    7:20 PM 14/06/2016

    Exactly, just like CJ Stander, jumping for that ball in the air and having some little fly half try and leave a face imprint on Standers arse cheek!

  • drg
    2:14 PM 14/06/2016

    It does create a sort of loophole though... We both saw different things, the first thing I saw was that Pococks feet weren't on the ground as he had jumped to catch the ball, and rather than taking the cynicism you turned it on it's head and said this could be deemed jumping into the tackle... so the loophole could be literally jumping to catch every ball passed... if you get it wrong you get smashed, but get it right and it's a penalty everytime... if referees weren't a tad more sensible than that...

  • stroudos
    1:47 PM 14/06/2016

    He's perfected the Brent impression hasn't he? Latest one with Farrell is 100% Brent:
    https://twitter.com/jameshaskell/status/742626234534887424

  • stroudos
    9:53 AM 14/06/2016

    Yeah, after casually throwing out the phrase in my earlier comment, I started to question whether it was even a law or if I was just blindly subscribing to one of those "past the horizontal"/"didn't wrap his arms" types of colloquialism.

    Confession time, I got my last paragraph about Law 10.4 (k) from here: http://www.rugbyrefs.com/archive/index.php/t-6934.html?s=303083a80c52e398f39308f1ab98fcee. Tried to pass it off as my own wisdom and encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, but the guilt is now consuming me... :)

    The rugbyrefs discussion was based on a slightly different scenario, but the crux of it is really that "jumping into the tackle" is an offence mostly because it tends to lead to people getting flying boots in the noggin.

    Anyway, that page is over seven years old and it seems the laws have been amended since then.
    "Acts contrary to good sportsmanship" is now 10.4 (m).

    10.4 (i) sort of applies (against Haskell) "Tackling the jumper in the air. A player must not tackle nor tap, push or pull the foot or feet of an opponent jumping for the ball in a lineout or in open play."

  • hoot
    8:02 PM 13/06/2016

    Love Haskell, great character and immense player, wears his heart on his sleeve. I think the David Brent thing is probably deliberate, cracks me up though.

  • drg
    7:50 PM 13/06/2016

    Something rattling around in my head seems to be clawing at memories of your last paragraph, I don't believe there is actually any specific law to jumping into a tackle. I think it falls under 10.4 (k) as you mentioned (I'm taking your word for that coding..) and also dangerous play.

    I guess there might also be some sort of stud manufacturing error that also allowed that particular stud you noticed to be every so slightly longer than the rest...

  • stroudos
    6:41 PM 13/06/2016

    "It might be my ageing eyesight but I can't see Pocock in contact with the ground so it looks like he was taken in the air"

    I've had laser surgery on the eyes and I can assure you that the very tip of one stud of Pocock's left boot ever so briefly brushed against the end of a rogue blade of grass the ground staff had inadvertently left protruding slightly higher than the rest of the grass.

    I mentioned earlier that you're not allowed to "jump into the tackle", which makes Pocock fair game to be tackled, whether he's touching the ground or, as I now realise in this case, not.

    By the way, I can't find any specific mention of jumping into tackles in the Laws. I believe it's not allowed as part of 10.4 (k) Acts contrary to good sportsmanship, because in effect it stops the tackler from tackling the ball carrier legally.

  • drg
    5:27 PM 13/06/2016

    I agree with you regarding Pocock being out, he's a monster of a player and it's a shame to see any team playing without someone like that...

  • drg
    5:26 PM 13/06/2016

    Exactly!!

    This is what we WANT to see in the game, as it was Haskell probably got a buzz from it, the crowd certainly did, his team must have too. Pocock probably got a rattling, but regardless seemed to get up none the worse for wear... BUT, as you said, over the past few years, had this tackle been another degrees more and a referee threw a red card at Haskell for it, we wouldn't like it, but we couldn't argue it as surprising or unexpected given the trends of the game..

  • drg
    5:23 PM 13/06/2016

    Not really buddy, don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure you and myself are more or less on the same page with regards to how rough the game should be, perhaps me being up with the big boys has me wanting the game a tad nastier than you, but we're about the same. But honestly that semi tip tackle spiel I left up there isn't exactly far off reality in this day and age.

    As for the rest of it, Pocock did not have a foot on the ground, so he was taken out in the air, of course as you stated above in another comment (I hadn't considered this previously) Pocock himself could have been done for jumping into the tackle.....

    Perhaps as it stands maybe the referee looked at it and went "penalise Haskell for taking guy out in the air, or penalise Pocock for jumping into tackle,.... or just leave it and play on?"

    You and I have commented on far too many things we thought we'd never see being ruled as red card worthy, or yellow card worthy, citing worthy, or even law worthy - As Dan recently said, he's actually disappointed that new laws regarding feigning have been brought in as it shows how low the game has sunk...

  • 45678
    4:33 PM 13/06/2016

    Haskell has been playing well for England all year. everyone gets in so worked up about 7s and turnovers, that we don't see the work rate and impact he has

    I'm a big believer that turnovers are not role specific - after 2 phases it becomes irrelevant to position. you hardly ever get turnovers at the 1st - 4th breakdown because it is so structured these days, so if you have props locks and centres turnover the ball at the breakdown it is fine

    cant help thinking Haskell is getting more and more like david brent in these video's. not sure if it is intentional?

  • stroudos
    4:14 PM 13/06/2016

    I assume it was the "mid-air" element you were referring to, rather than actually early, seeing as Pocock had the ball in both hands when tackled.

    I'm back for a second comment on this not to be rude, but because it occurred to me that - regardless of Haskell's innocence here - Pocock is actually committing a penalisable offence here, by "jumping into the tackle". Logically, as Pocock jumped into the tackle, he could have had both feet off the ground and Hask could legally tackle him in mid-air.

    I think Pocock took the less bad option here, jumping to take that pass. If he'd lifted his arms to catch it at head-height, he'd have had some pretty sore ribs!

  • stroudos
    4:01 PM 13/06/2016

    Definitely a crowd-pleaser and it's always good for your own personal motivation to get that type of hit in early in the game - proven here by the awesome game Haskell went on to play, arguably his best performance in an England shirt if you ask me.

    As the old expression goes, you've got to get your first tackle in early, even if it's late. (Or as some would suggest in this case, marginally early).

    The tackle itself was made to look more spectacular because of the poor pass (or perhaps I should give Hask more credit for his line speed?). I was equally impressed by Pocock's retention and clean presentation of the ball!

    Gutted that Pocock is out of the series. I didn't see the incident where his face got damaged, assume no foul play involved or we'd have heard more about it?

    Also, great to see HaskCam of sorts again. Hat tip to Nowell for some quality video-bombing too.

  • stroudos
    3:08 PM 13/06/2016

    Mate, there's devil's advocate and then there's taking the piss!

  • daluaine
    3:04 PM 13/06/2016

    Yep - I'm in two minds with this tackle. As DrG says, could have gone either way. It might be my ageing eyesight but I can't see Pocock in contact with the ground so it looks like he was taken in the air and tipped - and another few degrees and Pocock would have landed on his head/neck. I'm the first to say "play on" with this type of tackle but in the context of some of the tackles players have been pinged for over the past few years and I think Haskell was lucky with this one.

  • stroudos
    3:04 PM 13/06/2016

    It's you.

    Only one foot has to be touching the ground when the tackle is made.

  • drg
    2:13 PM 13/06/2016

    I'm going to play the devils advocate here...

    Haskell hit Pocock when Pocock was still in the air, looked to me like it could be argued that in his hit, he also lifted Pococks legs, definitely didn't turn him, but he did make him land on his back...

    I think the tackle was great - minus Haskell perhaps getting a knee to the walnuts, but depending on how nitpicking referees can be, I'd say this could have gone either way..

  • sjaaks
    12:44 PM 13/06/2016

    Is it just me or is Haskell slightly early?

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