Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Tuilagi flattens Reddan in the Guinness Premiership Final

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Tuilagi flattens Reddan in the Guinness Premiership Final

Big Samoan and Leicester Tigers wing Alesana Tuilagi today showed us another fine example of just how lethal he can be in full stride, when he absolutely flattened little Wasps scrum half Eoin Reddan in the Guinness Premiership final at Twickenham.

Last season Tuilagi was a bit more prolific, and has struggled to fire to an extent this time round, bar a superb try in the Semi Finals of the same competition.

Fair enough, this match up between big Alex and Reddan is somewhat of a mismatch, considering the size of each player, but it's still a spectacular site to see the big flyer steam rolling guys out the way while barely breaking stride.

Leicester and Tuilagi just didn't have what they needed today though, and we saw Wasps go on to lift the trophy and bid a fitting farewell to their retiring captain Lawrence Dallaglio. Tribute video to follow shortly.

i was there at the match today, and saw this close up. it generally was a huge hit, and im surpised reddan lived to tell the tale!

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2008 9:25 pm
Boom!
Quality!

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2008 9:28 pm
What was Reddan doing? He just stood there, like a rabbit in the headlights (I can understand that, though!)

He didn't even try to make a hit, which probably wouldn't have mattered anyway ;-)

Too bad this match leaves Leicester empty-handed :( I really hope they make some sensible changes. They have way too many players, and a lot of them are not good enough, I think ...

By Sander, at May 31, 2008 10:25 pm
WHY ISNT REES TACKLE ON MEFIN DAVIES Correct me if im wrong, up on rugby dump, well actually there was countless huge wasps hits, GET THEM UP

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2008 10:41 pm
i doubt there was much he could of done, and god knows Its a nightmare for redden, but if he'd of gone a little lower he might of actually stopped his man, he'd still get flattened though.
but then its Alesana Tuilagi coming at you full tilt, easy to understand why he may of panicked slightly!
I love how in just about every pic of Tuilagi he's got some serious tongue action goin on, battering ram of a winger.

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2008 10:47 pm
size does matter but still 80% in tackling is about technique

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2008 11:33 pm
agree with minstrel boy thats bollocks he missed that tackle and i'm a nine and have had to tackle front rows bigger than him 'YOU GO LOW' that was just fear and he didn't even want to know about the tackle and made a half arsed effort. Tuilagi is an animal who knows only one way which is effective if you do what reddan did but any half decent player goes low or blind side him high like hernadez

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 12:09 am
Why on earth would you try to tackle someone twice your size and sprinting *without* getting low? Reddan just asked to be run over there...

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 5:19 am
OOH! HE GOT RUN THRU BY A TRAILER! DAMN!

By Don, at June 01, 2008 8:08 am
U guys are being too hard on Reddan.

As a relatively small guy who's been run over by many a big man (no homo)...I can tell u getting low can do nothing in that situation.

Tuilagi has what in physics is referred to as ACCELERATION..or in layman terms, "once he starts, he can't stop"...talk less of YOU stopping him.

Same thing as Lomu, and we all know that even with 2 men clinging on him, Lomu would conveniently run to the try line and send folks weeping home in their speedos.

So in Reddan's case, should he have gone lower? Yes. Would he have stopped Tuilagi? err...NO. Perhaps slowed him down a bit like he's already done anyway...but stop him completely? HELL NO.

Anyone who clicked the related video where Juan Hernandez (I believe?) stopped Tuilagi would notice three things

a) He came at a very fast speed, almost matching up with Tuilagi's own speed.

b) he caught tuilagi completely blindsided/by surprise.

c) he hit tuilagi HIGH.

So in a summary, Y'all should be easy on Reddan seriously.

By Don, at June 01, 2008 8:12 am
Don mate, it's more about Tuilagi's power than Reddan's size. Sounds like you almost got offended cos you're also a wee man?

Extreme power is tough to bring down, but there are plenty of small guys around the world who have no trouble with it 9 times of of 10. Just look at someone like Matt Giteau, who is tiny for an international center, and yet, we never notice his size because he's SUCH a good tackler. It's about technique mate, and Reddan's was poor, so don't try defend him lol

Even so, no matter what size you are, I think most men wouldn't want to get in the way of Tuilagi in full flight.

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 11:56 am
I agree with Sharky, take other people George Gregan, hes tiny but pound for pound hes the strongest man on the Australian Rugby team, and he can tackle like a bull. Im also a little guy, and i cant tackle well but im smart enough to know not to tackle a 118kg winger by the chest, what was he thinking, like my dad always tells me he cant run without legs>

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 1:10 pm
going to be hard to tackle but lewsey and sackey got him 4 out of 4 times and they arent 118 kilos each.

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 1:21 pm
samoan power!!!

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 1:52 pm
Joe youre right, but remember sackey and lewsey have great chest power, and did you see how Sackey tackled him, he jumped on him and then dragged him to the ground.(*

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 3:01 pm
AVE IT!!!

TIGERS WHERE awful. Ther got beaten by a better team. (i am a huge tigers fan)

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 3:30 pm
Get out with those comments that you could of stopped Tuilagi if you were Reddan. Nor could he of simply got low and tackled Alesana. Yes, tackling is alot about technique, however getting low is not technical in the slightest.

Reddan was pretty much static, he was always going to be crumpled. He even looks around when Alesana goes past the first man to see if hes the only one in his line of fire, he sees he is and then has no time to react. He was caught out of position, he should of been right behind van Gisbergen who kicked the gary owen.

So many better hits in the game though. Haskell and Rees put in some monster hits. Cannot wait to see Haskell and McCaw in the breakdown and contact phases this summer!

By aj.uk, at June 01, 2008 4:01 pm
Aj.uk Mate we are aloud to talk, none of us said that we could have taken him down, and you sound like my mother, "he tried his best and thats all that matters" yeah true but the real truth is he got flattend by a bulldozer of a samoan. and we talk about it cause its true how could and 80 kilo guy expect to take on Alesana chest to chest, we all said it cause its true he should have taken out his legs.

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 4:13 pm
I think my nan could of attempted to tackle him better than reddan!!

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 5:04 pm
REDDAN IS COMPLETELY AT FAULT

poor tackling

he had time and space to set himself to take down Tuilagi in my opinion reddan was caught in two minds high or low! he chose high....big mistake

go low take his ankles or even shins and if he did that theres only one way tuilagi would of gone....down

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 6:04 pm
good work by tuilagi, but i still dont understand him, he very rarely uses his full pace.....i understand the importance of looking for support but in so many of his clips he never seems to really blitz it!!!

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 6:35 pm
"WHY ISNT REES TACKLE ON MEFIN DAVIES Correct me if im wrong, up on rugby dump, well actually there was countless huge wasps hits, GET THEM UP"

Use a nickname, first of all. Secondly a little bit of respect for the people who run this awesome site would be nice. Once we start paying for these clips, then we can start demanding things. Just my 2 cents.

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 6:39 pm
LOL. Don, it is momentum not acceleration. wot u mean is that 100kg at 10mph has the same force as 50kg at 20mph. anyway Tuilagi has poor acceleration as sackey showed in the world cup, i don't think he is that quick, any of the worlds speed merchants would leave him 4 dead

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 7:13 pm
Man,you have to be brave to stand against that animal tuilagi(this is in a good way;-))...

By Anonymous, at June 01, 2008 8:17 pm
yer all at fault........reddan did his best to try an stop him. he didnt jump out of the way like a pussy! he gave it a shot and came off 2nd best, it happens. and not many people have stopped tuiglagi in full flight! good effort reddan and congrats on winning and being the best scrum half in ireland and england!

By Unknown, at June 03, 2008 1:05 am
That is what you called a Samoan side step..lol

By Anonymous, at July 08, 2008 12:41 am
Why do people over-complicate it??
E.G DON
he got flattened simple as
he should of just gone so low tuilagi trips over him

By Anonymous, at August 14, 2008 11:46 pm
reddan doesn't hav to go low for tuilagi to trip over him

By Anonymous, at September 12, 2008 10:10 pm
thats exactly what happens if you dont go in low and hard. you'll get yourself more hurt by doing so....

By Anonymous, at March 06, 2009 11:49 am