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Mon 6 Mar 2017 | 02:57
Werner Kok explodes as Sevuloni Mocenacagi gets sent off in Las Vegas 7s final

31
Comments

South Africa claimed their fourth HSBC World Sevens Series title of the year by beating Fiji 19-12 in a controversial Cup final in Las Vegas, which saw Fijian Sevuloni Mocenacagi sent off late in the game.

Eager to regather the restart in the final play of the match, Mocenacagi carelessly took out Werner Kok in the air, with the South African landing dangerously on his shoulder/head.

Kok understandably wasn't best pleased and reacted accordingly. His actions towards Mocenacagi were a little over the top, but were not deemed serious enough to warrant a card.

Mocenacagi however, was not so lucky as by the letter of the law, he was shown a straight red card by the referee.

It was an ugly end to an otherwise entertaining final. Fiji, having just scored in the previous play to keep their chances of victory alive, desperately needed to get their hands on the ball from the restart, hence the clumsy challenge on Kok.

For the Blitzbokke, a fourth triumph in five tournaments cements their status as the best 7s team in the world right now, with England the only other team to win a round of the World Sevens Series.

Their domination thus far suggests they are not in the mood to change that and after being runner's up for the last four years, few would bet on the South Africans securing a first overall title since the 2008/9 season.

HIGHLIGHTS: Full Highlights from the final and knockout stages

Posted By: Stephen Brunsdon

31 Comments

  • rugbydump
    12:43 PM 14/03/2017

    Standing ovation.

  • danknapp
    11:55 AM 10/03/2017

    T.

  • drg
    10:15 AM 10/03/2017

    What's the capital of Thailand?

  • vladimir
    5:37 PM 08/03/2017

    Nice to see a Bok team with a fluid ball-passing game, quick hands and not obsessed with ramming into the opponent's defense.

  • danknapp
    4:16 PM 08/03/2017

    im1... *just applauds*

  • danknapp
    4:15 PM 08/03/2017

    Canterbury used to have a player called Joert ("Hurt") de Kok. I'm not 100% sure of the spelling of his firstname, but the pronunciation was spot on.

  • im1
    1:37 PM 08/03/2017

    I'd like to think they will erect a plaque in its honour

  • jimmy23
    12:13 PM 08/03/2017

    I'm sure RD would be immensely proud of this particular comments section.

  • oliver
    9:56 AM 08/03/2017

    holy shit you guys.....I'll let the native speakers handle this!

  • drg
    9:06 AM 08/03/2017

    ....Can we see more videos of Kok? The comment section is really making my day... Maybe a compilation of Kok smashing people and juggling balls..?

  • 10stonenumber10
    12:55 AM 08/03/2017

    This is why I get to irritated.

    As a small player, you get brutalised. Dumped, speared, slammed, swung, we are rag-dolls in a car crash.

    Except when you get dump tackled. For f*cks sake, lift your knees, twist 90, make them land on your hipbone, stick your knees in their belly. Get in a strong position. Don't try and draw a penalty by putting yourself in an injury prone position.

    If they want to lift you, expect a pointy landing. They don't do it again.

  • 10stonenumber10
    12:44 AM 08/03/2017

    F*ck the arguments.

    Whenever I got speared/clotheslined/hit high/late/wrongfully, I sought blood.

    If I hit someone high/late/wrongfully, I expected a barrage.

    It has been the same since 1823.

    We are human.

  • finedisregard
    11:27 PM 07/03/2017

    Stroudos you make a very good point.
    The only way that a ball carrier gets dumped is of they allow themselves to get dumped by going into contact in an insecure (high) body position. Players act like getting dumped is akin to their their eyes being gouged.
    It's a fair tackle.

  • hoot
    9:35 PM 07/03/2017

    Now that's the kind of proof-reading bonanza that keeps me coming back to these pages!

  • hoot
    9:31 PM 07/03/2017

    That's why he's so angry. School must have been hell...

  • drg
    5:39 PM 07/03/2017

    ...cum on guys....comment section is getting ridiculous now...

  • guy
    4:07 PM 07/03/2017

    Well, at least Kok did not attempt to milk the situation.

  • im1
    2:58 PM 07/03/2017

    Agreed. When I said, "the risk of serious injury from a spear tackle is statistically high enough that we ban anything above the horizontal" you could change that to "the risk of serious injury from a spear tackle is considered statistically high enough that we ban anything above the horizontal"

  • stroudos
    11:11 AM 07/03/2017

    im1 - agree with the sentiment of all your comments so far in this thread. I would even take issue with this statement: "the risk of serious injury from a spear tackle is statistically high enough that we ban anything above the horizontal". Is it though? Logically it seems highly dangerous, but I'm not sure it has been shown to result in a *statistically* significant number of injuries. Not saying I want to be on the receiving end of one.

    The lifting tackle regulations, lest we forget, were brought in the aftermath of the Mealamu/Umaga clear-out on O'Driscoll in 2005. It was not a spear tackle, but a dangerous ruck clear-out. A better comparison, as I think you indicated earlier, would be the McKinnon rugby league incident, where the "victim" is trapped and forced into either the ground or other bodies.

    A huge amount of cynicism has entered the game since the clamp-down on lifting tackles. From my own experience, I've been lifted dozens of times in tackles and every time self-preservation has made me assume a less vulnerable position and avoid injury, (excluding a bloody good winding on a couple of occasions).

    Think back to how people used to tackle - here are a couple of notable examples, of Jonny Wilkinson basically trying to insert the ball-carrier into the ground:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDPHYvGDbLM
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha9RqQmtXUU

    See how neither ball carrier lands on his head or neck. This is thanks to their use of their own core strength to enable a relatively comfortable landing. This is a natural reaction.

    I reckon both of these would have attracted a card now, and I'm afraid to say that's because the people in Bishop or N'tamack's shoes would more than likely have allowed themselves to be tipped and then writhed about going "oooaooaaohah".

  • im1
    6:48 AM 07/03/2017

    I agree that when jumping in the air a player is making them valuable, but feel that the attacking player should always be the one making sure that an accident happen. In this case Mocenacagi was attacking so Kok should have a right to jump without expecting to be upended. The defender has been challenged with a high kick so they should be given the chance to catch however they want. However, when the attacking team are trying to regain possession from a kick then the chaser should be the one with the responsibility for all player safety. After all, if the chaser is there early enough to upend them, they will also be there early enough to wait, getting the timing right and smash the defender back, giving them the chance for the next man in to turn it over

  • finedisregard
    2:27 AM 07/03/2017

    Yes.
    We are dismantling this game in an attempt to solve problems that do not exist.

    Rugby players have been fielding high kicks for a very long time. When a player jumps in the air they are making themselves extremely vulnerable.

    When the law was changed I don't believe it was the intention to have players jump in the air at every opportunity to draw red and yellow cards from the opposition. Rugby players have become quite precious.

  • im1
    9:18 PM 06/03/2017

    Statistics are relevant. Rugby has an inherent risk of serious injury in it, and where it is considered the risk is too great then certain actions are banned i.e the risk of serious injury from a spear tackle is statistically high enough that we ban anything above the horizontal, which tbh is you are just over the horizontal its not going to cause serious damage. Conversely, even though the is risk of serious injury from collapsed scrums, it is felt that banning the scrum all together is too extreme and would ruin the game even though we know there will be paralysis from collapsed scrums in the future as statistically is going to be almost 100% likely to happen.

    I'm not saying I know what the statistics on incidents like this, but this is an example of a serious take out in the air, which is deemed a red card where Kok has landed on his head/neck but no injury has been caused. One example does not make a rule, but the key differences between situations like think and the tackle (of a scrum) is that the player that has been fouled has close to zero control when tackled (or stuck in a collapsed scrum) and there is also a reasonably high chance that the force from the tackle will go through the fouled player in to the ground. In situations like this the player on the way down isn't likely to have the same sort of force applied. If you look at the case of Alex McKinnon in rugby league, the force applied through his body/neck into the ground was very high and he was trapped. His body/neck/head had nowhere to go and the tacklers were forcing him down. In this situation Kok lands on his neck/head, but his body "naturally" falls away as he isn't restricted by other players holding him in a particular position.

    Just to be clear I am not saying that this is not dangerous. I'm just questioning whether its is more dangerous than other incidents on the pitch that may not receive the same level of punishment and the reason for this is because it looks bad/spectacular.

  • im1
    9:02 PM 06/03/2017

    It was a pretty big tackle, so Mocenacagi doesn't have much to feel shafted about. He just has to swallow it up and accept the rules. It would have been a shame if Kok had been injured and force off the field as it could have given Fiji the chance to come from behind. Its great to see the SA team doing well. Hopefully some of it will rub off on the XV team.

  • shiloh65
    8:50 PM 06/03/2017

    If he landed on his backside would he have gone off half cocked as he did?

  • danknapp
    8:24 PM 06/03/2017

    I think you're both missing the vastly more important point that his name is Kok, and there is much fun to be had.

  • danknapp
    8:23 PM 06/03/2017

    Yeah, even at the end the Fijian players were keen to beat Kok off. No respect.

  • alasdairduncan3
    8:18 PM 06/03/2017

    I agree,
    Kok shouldn't have come on so strong, but Mocenacagi definitely should have shown more care with Kok.

  • alasdairduncan3
    8:13 PM 06/03/2017

    Surely statistics versus similar danger in a tackle situation are irrelevant, as both are policed in the same way.

    Definitely potential for serious and life changing neck or back injury in collisions such as this. Are you suggesting we wait until someone is paralysed from the neck down before we continue with the current crackdown on this sort of dangerous play?

  • danknapp
    7:45 PM 06/03/2017

    I've seen my fair share of Kok, and I've always been a fan. It's always great to see a good Kok performance. I quite like the up and under, and seeing Kok flipped upside down and smashed into the ground made me wince. I mean, I wouldn't like it to happen to me!

    Once Mocenacagi takes Kok out it's pretty much inevitable that someone is going to be hurting, I'm just glad that Kok was able to get up in his face afterwards. It's a shame he exploded so quickly, but it was a big occasion and I'm not going to pretend I wouldn't have been the same.

    I mean, just think about how we'd all have felt if Kok had just gone limp? Horrible, that's how.

  • im1
    6:31 PM 06/03/2017

    This is pretty much the worst outcome of taking the man out in the air, with Kok landing on his head. But he gets up straight away and ready for a fight. So is it really that dangerous that there should be multiple red cards given, to the point that some people feel the only way to deal with it could be to ban jumping?

    Sure, it looks bad, but do the statistics show that the chance of getting injured in this situation is higher than when making a tackle?

  • drg
    5:39 PM 06/03/2017

    Gotta be pretty pissed to get up in the face of a fijian that big...

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