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Thu 10 Sep 2015 | 03:04
Josh Valentine knocked out by brutal upright tackle from Taiasina Tuifua

20
Comments

Former Wallaby Josh Valentine received this brutal knock in a Pro D2 game when he was hit head-on by Taiasina Tuifua. The big Samoan did something similar to Nicky Robinson in 2012, leading with his head in an upright tackling fashion that is clearly dangerous.

Valentine, now at Beziers, went off with concussion and stayed off as a precaution. No word on Lyon's Tuifua or the punishment he may or may not have received. In all likelihood he probably got away with it, but it's never nice to see these type of knocks take place.

Posted By: Grant Constable

20 Comments

  • drg
    12:27 PM 15/09/2015

    Actually, what am I saying, they have tv's in Fiji... go go go, at least they'll be a great bunch to watch some rugby with!

  • drg
    12:27 PM 15/09/2015

    wait until after the RWC...

  • 10stonenumber10
    5:20 AM 15/09/2015

    That is pretty much the basis of the book. Water can crash, or it can flow. A hit is only a hit because momentum meets resistance. Move with the hit, and it becomes powerless. Keeping your feet and riding a hit is about triangulating the impact when the tackler has overreached the point of contact. To liken it to boxing, if you are the bag, you want them to scuff the surface rather than through it. The same method Dynamo uses when David Haye tried to lift him.

    It's going to be a fair while yet before it is completed. I'm back in no man's land between jobs, it's hard to get into the mindset in between the never ending sugar coated "Thanks, but you're not quite good enough" rubbish that HR managers are so fond of.

    Might just sell my car, pack a sketchbook, shorts, ball, and a one way ticket to a Fijian Beach until it is done!

  • stroudos
    3:04 PM 14/09/2015

    Be sure to post a link to it when it's done mate. I sincerely hope you'll be including the "be water my friend" monologue in its entirety.

  • drg
    7:02 PM 12/09/2015

    Totally agree with everything you said, just not for this incident and video.....

  • browner
    10:15 AM 12/09/2015

    The Onus is on the tackler to tackle legally and not high, furthermore WR has decreed that tackles that start legal and end up through the throat/neck/head ARE illegal.

    Union has been infected with the RL higher tackling style, and the rise of lifetime concussion problems is another reason why these should be harshly removed from the game.

    The tough lads will wrongly cry 'part of the game' , those with an eye on the protection of participants will join me in condemning the high head battering ram assault that masquerades as a tackle.

    I don't want my son receiving a head smash in the face , tackles need to END/FINISH/COMPLETE lower than this one.

    RED card citing 'should' follow, if the sport is serious about protecting players IMO.

  • danknapp
    9:21 PM 11/09/2015

    I'm glad, but disappointed.

  • 10stonenumber10
    8:57 PM 11/09/2015

    I'm writing a skills guide to social rugby, illustrated martial arts/physics inspired by the handwritten Bruce Lee training manuals. There is a whole chapter on "How to Survive Back-Row Encounters"

    Not sure if positive and negative contact are the correct terms, but they make the most logical sense, definitely two for the glossary!

  • drg
    4:36 PM 11/09/2015

    I sort of thought it seemed like a bit longer play than expected. On the player front, I suppose we've all had team mates hit hard that they spill the ball or go down winded, so perhaps the team mate just saw "loose ball, mine mine mine"

  • drg
    4:34 PM 11/09/2015

    Never had this outcome thankfully, but I've done one of these dodging step right INTO the jaws of the Beast type of manoeuvres.. Sometimes legs and space doesn't all tie up!

    I like your description of positive and negative impact tackles. If only we had a RD word legend (key, dictionary) I'd say that's definitely a good description!

  • drg
    4:30 PM 11/09/2015

    Totally agree, it's nasty, unpleasant and 'dangerous' to a players health and if we could somehow rid it from the game then we'd all be safer, but unfortunately it's just one of those unlucky things that can and will happen at times. Best answer to this is to have highly trained medical staff ready to rush on and apply an ice pack to the giant lump that will start appearing immediately...

    ..but seriously, just need staff training and the correct KO procedures.

  • flanker2712
    3:57 PM 11/09/2015

    Agree with the sentiment of the majority who have posted.

    What troubles me most in this is the amount of time that passes between the tackle and the game being stopped. I know its only a few seconds, but in that type of situation, a few seconds is all it takes for a more serious injury to happen to a player who has no way of protecting himself. Admittedly I've seen worse (I remember one incident on here a couple of years ago, possibly from a Super Rugby game, where the unconscious player was in the middle of some pretty ferocious rucking and counter rucking).

    I know that you play to the whistle, that these things happen in the game, that players get knocked out and then are back on their feet a few seconds after etc. But surely one or more of the players in close proximity to the tackle must have heard the thud and seen the player knocked out cold. If the ref doesn't blow up, should they not try to let the ref know immediately? I see the blue 2 hit the ruck pretty hard, right above his unconscious teammate's face. I see blue 6 (I think) pick the ball up and try to make a few yards. Can't see his number, but a grey right behind the tackler seems to have a pretty good view and doesn't seem to bat an eyelid.

    Maybe I'm being too harsh?

  • colombes
    1:46 PM 11/09/2015

    The word by the ref is "reculez" which can be translated in "back-off!"

    but at 00:30, you can hear a sincere "ta gueule!" meaning "shut your f****** mouth"

  • drg
    1:18 PM 11/09/2015

    What I see here is head on head contact... Is that correct? It just strikes me as very odd that people are commenting on this as if the guy purposefully intended to clash heads :/

    Looks to me like the scrum half stepped into the head to head clash rather than the Samoan deliberately clattering heads. Therefore I don't know how this can be deemed dangerous play in the "who is guilty" form of the word..

    Very unfortunate and painful looking!

  • stroudos
    11:24 AM 11/09/2015

    I bloody love Samoan rugby and enjoy the trademark big hits, but you let yourself down with celebrating this kind of thing. I'm with the majority of posters in thinking it was unfortunate for Valentine that he got smashed this way, rather than putting the blame on Tuifua, but it's still unfortunate for the bloke. Taking pride in someone getting smashed in the face and knocked out is not clever.

  • danknapp
    10:10 AM 11/09/2015

    I wasn't sure if the word I was hearing was the word I thought it was... 'enculer'?

  • welshosprey
    5:43 AM 11/09/2015

    Because that was a complete accident.

  • 12:34 AM 11/09/2015

    Agreed. The 9 stepped back into this, otherwise there'd be no headclash. Collisions are worse when the weight difference is 30-40 kgs as well

  • 10stonenumber10
    11:07 PM 10/09/2015

    I sort of agree with what you are saying.

    We also have to look at the physics behind this. Scrumhalves are little. Number 8s are big. To make an effective hit, your shoulder needs to be below their shoulder. You also need to be leaning forwards. Either you wrap them up for a "negative contact", or you go low and go for the positive aggressive hit. He had the correct body position for the latter given the relative variables, and as we can see, he barely needed to adjust his feet to line the 9 up. The scrum half needs to take responsibility for where he runs, what was unfortunate here is that he chose to run at the centre of the shirt, rather than at a shoulder. A dead on hit. Obviously not a conscious decision to line himself up, the hit could have gone many ways, but I think too much blame is given against the tackler in questionable/careless or accidental hits.

    An unlucky collision where head-to-head was the initial point of contact. Had the scrum half been 15cm taller, shorter, to the left, the right, anywhere but where he was, it would have been another brutal but legal hit.

    I hate seeing injuries on the field, head injuries the most... but they are an unfortunate reality. No matter how many years you have been trained to smash someone, it's shocking when it stops being a word and becomes a reality.

  • rich_w
    7:27 PM 10/09/2015

    This is definitely more on the 'unfortunate' side of things no?

    If you're tackling with your shoulders, your head is never going to be far away. If you mess up with a stepping player sometimes your head is on the wrong side and it you who are out cold. Or alternatively, sometimes you smash your faces together. As seen here.

    The face tackle happens relatively frequently, think the 9 is just unlucky the tackler obviously has a breeze block for a head. It's not a card or even a penalty. I do worry about some fans knee-jerk "RED CARD HIM!" reactions. It's a collision sport, collisions will always have outcomes like this, you cannot remove the risk, and if you did, we wouldn't be watching rugby.

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