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Mon 11 Jun 2018 | 06:55
Remy Grosso hospitalized with double skull fracture after brutal collision

25
Comments

France were pummeled 52-11 at Eden Park Saturday night after leading at the break. However, the worst news came for winger Remy Grosso after taking successive, back-to-back shots to the head from Sam Cane and Ofa Tu'ungafasi. He was unable to finish the match and news later revealed the severity of the injury.

With thoughts of 1994 dancing in their heads, France actually came into the match with fire and passion. It was Grosso that got the scoring started with an intercept try off a rare Ben Smith brain fade. Smith had hoped to hit Jordie Barrett with a quick pass after scooping a loose ball, but Grosso pounced and strolled in untouched. 

Unfortunately for France, matches last two halves and that would be their only try on the night. 

Things unravelled rapidly after an early second half yellow card for Paul Gabrillagues after his high tackle on Ryan Crotty. This was all the All Blacks needed as they woke from their first-half slumber. 

A few minutes later was the nasty collision that could be heard around the park. It certainly bears mention that Sam Cane only received a penalty whereas earlier Gabrillagues had received a straight yellow for not even making clear contact with Crotty's head. Tu'ungafasi's contact was ignored althogether. 

The incident was enough for French coach Jacques Brunel to begin throwing around some rather serious accusations. Though with some time, his tone has now softened somewhat: 

"After reviewing the case it seems accidental, Ofa appears to be going down when he and Sam Cane collided with Remy... On one screen it looked like his shoulder hit the head but on the other it seems it was head against head. It was accidental." 

In their defence, the tackle also left both Cane and Tu'ungafasi prone on the ground themselves, with Cane even receiving - and passing - concussion protocol. 

From that moment, the All Blacks truly could not be stopped and began running in tries seemingly at will. 

Grosso will miss the remainder of the tour but will remain in New Zealand with the team until he's cleared to fly home. He is in a stable condition and out of hospital.

"I feel sad for him," said France flanker Bernard Le Roux.  "I saw him yesterday, he was all swollen up and he looks really bad. Hopefully he recovers well and is back for next season.

"Thankfully this is the end of the season, so we have a break after this."

Here's to a speedy recovery.

Full match highlights:

Credit: Gorpitsen Rugby/All Blacks/Getty Images

Posted By: davidharper

25 Comments

  • drg
    11:11 PM 16/06/2018

    Realistically thoigh, take yourself back to when you started playing senior rugby and ignore the fact that this involves the AB's and France, would you really want to see this result in a citing or a ban? Cane should have got a yellow, but Tu'Ungafasi was going in for the tackle when Grosso fell into him, it wasn't malicious. So at worst, yellow, in my rugby career start it would maybe be a penalty?

    With that in mind, Cane would get an off field yellow.

    In this day and age, yes, I can understand frustrations where we get told reds for everything, but in our rugby fan world this was a nasty accident..

  • felipeg
    2:16 PM 16/06/2018

    Didn't see the game but I guess one don't have to to get that there where serious refereeing issues.
    So sad for Grosso. I like his skills and attitude.
    The guy has a double skull fracture but he gets back on his feet!

  • drg
    8:39 PM 11/06/2018

    Haha, I agree. However, tongue in cheek aside, I think this is more about referees and world rugby than the individual players..

  • im1
    8:15 PM 11/06/2018

    That would probably result in more consistent outcomes!

  • vladimir
    7:11 PM 11/06/2018

    He apologized on Twitter, so that's fine.
    'Get on with it!'

  • drg
    6:09 PM 11/06/2018

    I think they made note that the Ouoja board normally used to determine the outcome of their meetings was in for its biannual service so they had to roll dice instead..

  • colombes
    6:08 PM 11/06/2018

    The most surprising in both incidents, is that the first "high tackle" offense was blatantly ignored.
    Big let down by the ref in both cases.

  • tigerinbirmingham
    5:39 PM 11/06/2018

    I thought the panel found Barrit should have been off as well, not instead of

  • tigerinbirmingham
    5:05 PM 11/06/2018

    yes - hand was on the ribs, coming up and over the shoulder but not on the neck and the direction of tackle meant the man fell off the arm rather than into it so it never slid into the neck.

  • im1
    5:05 PM 11/06/2018

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcQkiintoM8

    Similar to this incident. On the pitch and with TMO, Barrington (Ofa) got sent off

    But the disciplinary panel then found the Barrit (Cane) should have been sent off instead.

  • pickay
    4:35 PM 11/06/2018

    I agree Cane was very lucky not to be carded.
    As for Ofa, I think he put himself in a perfect tackling position, definitely didn't aim high, and had Grosso faceplant into his shoulder while falling. To me that was just very unfortunate. Sure there was contact to the head with force, but to me it was the head hitting the shoulder, and not the shoulder hitting the head...

  • drg
    2:46 PM 11/06/2018

    I've just seen a highlight reel and it showed the tackle in real-time, but from one angle and no replay, can't say I can see it too well, but I agree it doesn't look good at a glance.

    Was it a seatbelt tackle?

  • drg
    2:42 PM 11/06/2018

    Well the game is so ever changing, it feels a world from the game I started playing... Granted that was at school levels where scrum drives could be no more than a metre and lineouts at school were non lifting, so you have a crowd of flailing arms... But even then, us schoolboys new what rucking someone was, and we knew if we were on the wrong side we'd get stepped on for good measure...

    Ah, the simple days..

  • tigerinbirmingham
    1:53 PM 11/06/2018

    Crotty tackle looked really bad in real time, can fully understand why the ref blew up. TMO should have been in his ear saying had been a mistake.

    Cane was swinging arm direct to the jaw - started high & didn't ride up so a card is starting point, didn't look to be a lot of force so probably keep it at a yellow but could understand a red being given. Ofa was direct contact to the head with force - straight red all day.

    France really should have dealt better with going down to 14 men. NZ

  • thefrontrow
    12:53 PM 11/06/2018

    I wonder if someone running this buggers muddle that is world rugby will ever say "you know what, let's just make this whole thing less baffling for our loyal followers, they do support our entire existence afterall". Probably never, he'd be thrown out the back door.

  • drg
    12:37 PM 11/06/2018

    Going back to this incident however, by the letter of the law, could we be potentially looking at a yellow card for Cane (if not red) and a red card for Ofa? I mean I know that the majority, if not all of us would think it would be outrageous, but both were "to the head, WITH force"...

    This is one of these things where they create so many safety barriers/laws etc, that they either become ridiculous, or they just create so many giant loopholes... I mean, if my understanding of the laws is correct, then that's one red if not two, and if my understanding is correct then why weren't cards issued, AND, if cards are not issued, is there now the potential for a "Coach intervention" law that can be created, such as I believe is in NFL (not under that wording), whereby a coach can ask for something to be reviewed.. or tennis where a player can ask for a decision to be reviewed....

    Tying ourselves in knots here..

  • 12:12 PM 11/06/2018

    Yeah, the ref got both tackles wrong. For my money:
    - The Crotty tackle was nothing. Not even a penalty.
    - Cane could well have been yellow carded for a high shot to the face on Grosso (albeit probably not much intent there).
    - Ofa's involvement was unfortunate but no sanction applies - Grosso was clearly falling into the tackle and you can't say the shoulder hit was intentional without also saying he intentionally headbutted Cane (which seems unlikely to say the least, since it took them both off the field for HIAs).
    - The ABs have been on the receiving end of similar incorrect game-changing decisions on head shots in recent memory (especially O'Brien on Naholo and Vunipola on Barrett in the Lions series). It goes both ways.
    - French attitude was abysmal. All Tier 1 teams have plans for coping when down to 14, but the French basically stopped trying and never recovered.

  • jeri
    12:06 PM 11/06/2018

    The officiating in that match left everyone scratching their heads. We have to come to accept that a player stands to be yellow carded if impact was made against the head, even if unintentional (that's how Kieran Read got a yellow last year).

    So to see Pearce dispensing a yellow for the French tackle that didn't actually hit the head, but only penalising an arm that actually caught the chin is baffling to say the least.

    Even Steve Hansen commented that the French shouldn't have gotten the yellow card

  • thefrontrow
    11:37 AM 11/06/2018

    Yeah, the card certainly seemed to be the turning point. That said, would the ABs have pulled out their usual blitz from 50 minutes to go? We'll never know. I'd be feeling pretty hard done by if I was a Frenchman. Certainly a lot of Kiwi's feel that the card ruined what was shaping up as a great game.

  • oliver
    11:21 AM 11/06/2018

    I really feel for Grosso. He had a very good season, scores a solo try against NZ at home (not an easy task for anyone....) and ends up with a very serious head injury. Apparently he can't even take the plane for the moment, too dangerous because of the pressure. Will the rest of his career/life be affected?

    As for the reffing, I've had enough meltdowns here, so I'll refrain from commenting. I don't think I'll be able to keep my cool!

  • katman
    11:07 AM 11/06/2018

    There was no comparing the two incidents. The ref got them the wrong way round. French tackle was not even a penalty, and the AB tackle should've been yellow at least. Love to know what the ref was thinking. The card pretty much ended the game as a contest.

  • thefrontrow
    10:47 AM 11/06/2018

    The yellow card for Gabrillagues was outrageous. He was nowhere near Crotty's head, not even his his shoulders. It's unbelievable that the referee didn't go upstairs for a second look. And Sam Cane should have been given a yellow card. There are so many inconsistencies these days... I think the referee was pretty good for most of the game but these two balls-ups are not a good look for his first test. Actually, Ardie's try should have been disallowed too, not that it would have changed the outcome. Bit of a shame really.

  • drg
    10:34 AM 11/06/2018

    Yeh I totally agree. Don't get me wrong, personally this looked like an accidental arm to the head/jaw of the Frenchman, which (again personally), I'd expect a penalty, as for the other player, by that point the Frenchman was falling, so again, idk, penalty maybe?

    But as you said, given the stance WR has taken, which seems to really indicate no quarter being given...there seems to be an awful lot of discretion and well...quarter given.. from that, I can see the French fans feeling like they're once again on the wrong side of all "the law", they're either punished severely, or the opposition doesn't get punished...

    That being said, I missed the French card, so it'd be interesting to see how the incidents compare..

  • 9:53 AM 11/06/2018

    First half was pretty interesting with an aggressive France squad against a team that seamed to not be fully woken up.

    Then a yellow card falls and the Blacks consider it as the opportunity they needed to accelerate. They perfectly use their advantage (3 tries if I'm not mistaken in those 10 minutes) and then the French lose faith and collapse.

    Second half was a demonstration from the Blacks and a disgrace from the French.

  • colombes
    9:21 AM 11/06/2018

    Regarding how WR is now cautious with any harmless head contact, the fact this incident was not even sanctioned with a yellow or red card is baffling and "amusing".

    Didn't watch the game, was it good?

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