Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Juan-Manuel Leguizamon knocked out cold by Hufanga hit

Monday, September 22, 2008

Juan-Manuel Leguizamon knocked out cold by Hufanga hit

Stade Francais scored an impressive four tries on their way to a 37-16 win over Brive in the Top 14 on Saturday, but the victory came with a price as backrow forward Juan-Manuel Leguizamon was taken to hospital after being knocked unconscious in a high tackle.

The Argentine player, who was taken off the field on a stretcher, regained consciousness but was having medical tests to check his condition.

Stade's Australian coach Ewen McKenzie said Leguizamon would be out for up to three weeks.

"His absence will be for between one and three weeks," McKenzie said.

Leguizamon left the field in the 53rd minute after a vicious high tackle from Brive's Tongan centre Sukanaivalu Hufanga, who was then given a red card.

It was a horrible sight as Leguizamon seemingly took the full force of Hufanga’s forearm to the chin, then went to ground in a heap as he was knocked out cold.

While it seems as though Hufanga would have been aiming for a solid hit in the chest to bring down the bigger forward, he got this horribly wrong and paid the penalty by not only receiving the red card, but allowing Stade to have their way with the game in the last twenty five minutes while he was off.

Initial thoughts? Suspension in order, or was the red card sufficient on the day?

Time: 01:14

That was a disgraceful tackle, he will probably get a few weeks suspension for that, even if he didn't mean for it to be high he still made no effort to wrap his arms around the player.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 10:27 am
Well it was dirty but he got a bit of his medicine I guess.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 10:30 am
The music is epic!

Inappropriate, but epic.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 11:07 am
that's just a poorly judged tackle, he wanted a hard hit, you see them all the time where people get hit around the chest. red card should be sufficient as it didn't look to be done with intent.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 11:09 am
i agree, red card is sufficient..
though the music just makes it seem that much worse, makes it seem as if he was the grim reaper and he killed the guy rather than knock him unconcious!

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 11:10 am
+1 red is sufficient.
robbie

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 12:40 pm
red card is sufficient?are you kidding? ¨he got a bit of his medicine¨? I can´t believe this...hufanga deserves at least a suspension of 2 months, this is very dangerous for any player and we are seeing this too often...
sorry for my english...

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 12:55 pm
alguien traduzca esto al ingles por favor..
esos tackles altos son de cagones, cualquier cagon puede meterte un hombro en la cara, el que realmente tiene las bolas se te planta y te rompe el pecho de un Tackle con el hombro y los brazos alrededor del cuerpo...hufanga hizo eso por miedo, en ningun momento muestra intenciones de agacharse...

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 12:58 pm
this is not the nfl..this is rugby and we tackle....thats not a tackle ,thats a shoulder in the face...anybody can do that, if you really have the balls to play this game, you need to make a proper tackle.....hufanga didn´t want to tackle and show no remorse at any moment..only when he saw the red card...ban this things in rugby please..sorry for my english

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 1:02 pm
the music is awesome! you'd think they were playing a game of rugby with the losers being killed with that music going on! crazy tackle though needs to be disciplined more harshly to deter people from doing it.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 1:42 pm
music is ridiculously over dramatic, but it was a disgraceful tackle! It cannot be made to be seen that this is ok and a ban of some sort should be given. It's hard to tell if it was purposeful or not though.

check at 0.49-0.50 seconds, you can see Leguizamon's gumshield go flying up in the air.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 2:06 pm
A poorly executed tackle. He did try to grab but the collision was too hard and fast for that to happen. I think it is harder to grab an unconscious body than someone still running. It certainly was NOT a malicious tackle. Red is sufficient but I expect some bench time 'pour encourager les autres'

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 2:27 pm
Why is it people think if something is accidental it's perfectly OK? I don't think there was intent to injure there, but it was still reckless, and shows that Hufanga isn't as careful as he needs to be.

It's good to see in an incident like that that the SF players's first thoughts are to get some medical attention to him, rather than piling in and starting a fight with Brive. Lots of players seem to think this constitutes being a good team mate, and 'standing up for them' by getting yourself sent off too.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 2:30 pm
I am so sick and tired of seeing the Pacific Islanders executing these tackles. Wherever they are all over the world, they are always involved in these "sucker punch" tackles. But because none of their teams ever win anything of note, these incidents are ignored for their "underdog" labels. World Rugby should start investigating life long bans for certain offences to get rid of these buffoons in rugby.

By Gerhard, at September 22, 2008 2:34 pm
These islanders are always tackling at neck height, Jerry Collins was one of the worst offenders. Its not on.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 2:51 pm
i agree, the islanders are used to make tackles like this, they should be suspended for it.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 3:21 pm
gerhard, you´re so right on your words...
watch collins against stade francais, thats the manual of how to play dirty rugby

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 3:35 pm
Reminds me of Kankowski getting knocked out by Del Fava in the Italy test a few months back.

Both players went down head first into the tackles and were knocked out with heads bobbing around like rag dolls...and both tackles were I think simply solid tackles that could have and should have been lower but wer not badly malicious in intent...

If players are serial offenders this should be delt with by suspensions and match fee fines ontop of that but red was sufficiant here IMO...

By durrie, at September 22, 2008 3:37 pm
Watching his butt land and then his upper body just slingshot into the ground... Ugh...

Some folks think this is just a simple red card. Some defend it as not being a spear, or as one not delivered with malice. I agree with those two points.

But nonetheless, this tackle is as dangerous to the tackled player as they get.

I would hate to see this tackle ever again. Since part of the punishment is its deterrent effect on future infractions, a severe sanction is warranted IMHO.

Hope Leguizamon is OK

By Cheyanquí, at September 22, 2008 3:37 pm
That just looks like a rugby-league tackle. I hate people going high and using too much shoulder. It's basically allowing people to disguise checks as legitimate tackles. Still, with a hundred+ tackles in a game of rugby, it'd be ridiculous to expect all of them to be legal.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 3:45 pm
the tackler was just unlucky, he timed it poorly if he had launched the hit a couple of seconds later it would have been grand,so one could blame the attacker for allowing himself to be lined up like that in the midfield. either way that is just rugby isn't no prisoners.

By Unknown, at September 22, 2008 4:11 pm
I'd love if someone from the Pacific Islands came forward and defended this technique. I mean that, because it's pretty obvious these guys are taught to tackle like that. Ever seen an Irish player (example) putting in devastating hits to the chest like that??
There's something taught from a young age down there, and unfortunately, it comes off 1 in 5 times, with the other 4 being illegal imo.

So the question is why is so much focus placed on this technique in the Islands, when the rest of the world gets by without it?
That's not a rhetorical question.. answers from islanders are welcome. :)

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 4:15 pm
P.S: I hope Leguizamon is okay, and I feel for Hufanga, as he did look pretty sad about it and of course he didn't mean to knock him out. The tackling technique is still questionable though.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 4:17 pm
deserved the red but not a suspension

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 4:47 pm
Definitely deserves a suspension, but not unless the authorities are going to publicly make it a policy to discourage and punish this kind of play.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 5:33 pm
Rockylamontagne
I agree,even if accidental that hit was reckless.
I think Hufanga deserves suspension and I hope Legui is O.K.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:10 pm
Law 10 Foul Play:

(e) Dangerous Tackling

A player must not tackle (or try to tackle) an opponent above the line of the shoulders. A tackle around the opponent's neck or head is dangerous play.

So, no doubt that Hufanga did wrong, regardless of whether he meant to or not. However, intent or the lack of intent is up for the referee to judge, at the exact time it happened. Although from the video replay it looks like there was no intent for it to be high, when you see an offence like that your mind tends to be made up in a second or two. There's a good rule of thumb used by myself and other referees when something like this occurs - if you have to stop and think about whether the act of foul play committed warrants a Red or Yellow, then it's a Yellow. There should be no doubt whatsoever for a Red card to be produced.
The situation provided to this referee is a high, hard tackle, which didn't even start on the chest and slide up, so the tackle was reckless at least. The tackle resulted in a man being knocked unconcious. I have no doubt that, had Leguizamon not been knocked senseless, then Hufanga would only have received a Yellow card.

I hope that any ban Hufanga receives will be short, because there seems to be no intent and you can see clearly after he receives the red card that he is distressed with what he did. He learnt his lesson, no doubt about it.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:14 pm
Does anyone know the name of the music?

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:15 pm
Hufanga had been playing really agressivly since the begining of the game. He tackled a SF player in the air (though not very hard), and at one point tried to swing a punch at a player who was being tackled (he missed luckily but the half of the stands wich i was in started booing). I had never seen our crowd react so angrily against a player before (we have a tendency to be slightly passive). We booed him off the pitch and tried to stop him getting into the stands.
I think that Hufanga was over aggresive all through the game and deserves a suspension because his tackle was ridiculously high, armless, and leguizamon only came to once he was in hospital.
According to the newspapers leguizamon is fine and suffered no major injury.
The only good thing about the hit was that paris stepped up a level afterwards and scored some great tries and got the bonus point!

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:22 pm
This is a bad tackle but if leguizamon wasn't injured I don't think he would have even got the red let alone an extra suuspension.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:38 pm
I think a lot of you are posting on emotion and not learning. First, it is clear from the video that he did not mean the tackle to be that high. The guy basically looks like he's about to cry when he sees how grievous the situation is. Second, deterrence is a laughable concept. If any of you have ever studied criminal justice or business policy, you'd know that no potential offender, in the heat of whatever situation, ever thinks about the factors or possible punishments meant to "deter" him. Deterrence is a joke in criminal justice circles. Need an easy example a child could understand? How about this... you just saw THAT high tackle and all the others this year despite whatever deterrence has been levied in years past against these offenses. Get your heads out of the sand. The guy screwed up and got red carded and his team got a beating for it. End of story.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:41 pm
Dont they teach these guys how to tackle? I mean not even amateurs or new people to the game do that!

I think he will get a suspension, a bit harsher that could be expected because of the injury

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:44 pm
Haha, music made me shit myselgf laughing. What a twat whoever made this...

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 6:45 pm
Bad tackle - reckless and poorly executed meant it was dangerous. I do not think he intended to connect as he did, although certainly he intended to smash him.

I think the bigger question is why there is such a tendency among Island nations/players (warrior culture etc.) to make these neck/head high hits.

The music is from the movie 300. Go to itunes and see the soundtrack.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 7:10 pm
Red is fine. Nothing more.

I saw no malice. The fact is, this happens.

People should deal with it. It's called probability. And the probability is that with the hundreds of tackles a game, some illegal tackles will slip through.

I'm annoyed at the members replying saying "This is Rugby not NFL" and other comments along those lines.

Yes, this is rugby, get used to it. The only prevention of this is to outlaw tackles above the WAIST! Is that what you want in rugby?

And this is just another bloody case of discipline on the result, not the actual tackle. If the tackler bounced off the tackled man in his attempt, the whistle would not have blown. It's only because of the result of the incident that people care.

Union is getting too soft.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 7:14 pm
I´ve seen worst high tackles, this one is not spectacular,but I think was a accidental one and deserves the red card but nothing more than that, there is no dirty actitud in the tackle , just Leguizamon went a little under and Hufanga went a little high,and that was all, the fall of Leguizamonn increase the gravity of the matter,but if Leguizamon had got up, Hufanga gets a red card and at the end of the game nobody would remember the matter

PD:This one is the video of BETTER QUALITY that I have EVER seen in youtube

By Unknown, at September 22, 2008 7:37 pm
Lol Rancid... from what I can see, his forearm made contact with his chin, knocking him out cold. Is union really soft for penalising that, or should it be more common place?

Lets not go down that road though please, once again. :)

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 7:38 pm
Oh be quiet Benson. Where did i claim red was harsh? I didn't. The Red was just.

My point, clearly, if you could read, is made towards those responding trying to make an argument he deserves weeks, or even months suspension for this incident.

Get it? Got it? Good.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 8:34 pm
Rancid, you arrogant twat, cool your jets bro. You clearly get wound up easily. Apologies if my comment 'got to you'.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 8:41 pm
Music is from the 300 soundtrack just so whoever asked knows. Bit overly dramatic though.

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 9:35 pm
Have you seen the mouth piece flying away when he hitted the ground ? I would suspend him for a week or two those tackles cannot be tolerated

By Anonymous, at September 22, 2008 11:41 pm
seems no malice in that... red sufficient

By boomshanka, at September 23, 2008 12:49 am
I'm not sure you can lump all islanders into a group called 'bad tacklers' or 'dirty players'. From what has been said here, it's just Collins and this schmuck.

Saying pacific islanders don't know how to tackle legally is like saying the French can't play a match without starting a fight.

On a side note, RD, a lot of the older videos seem to have been removed from youtube.

By Anonymous, at September 23, 2008 1:08 am
Suspensions are for malicious acts. yellowadn redcardsare there for in-game penalties.
He will probably get suspended, but if it goes for over than 2 weeks, i think it will be way to much.
It wasn't a spear and you don't die for taking a punch to the face.
The reason why Leguizamon was knocked out was because it was a hit to the chin, if you watch professional fighting you know that the chin is a very weak area and it's very easy to knock someone by hitting their chin.
My poins is:
It was just a poor tackle.
As the great french player Pierre Berbizier once said: "If youcan't take a punch, you should play table tennis."

Red card is enough.

By Anonymous, at September 23, 2008 3:17 am
its good to see they stoped the game straight away and there as no fighting because Leguizamon could have been hurt more.
if you watch it closely, Leguizamon bobs down to bumb off Hufanga, so Hufangas shot went higher then intended

By Anonymous, at September 23, 2008 4:08 am
Dear RD this has no relevence what so ever but from an aussie and a league supporter do you rekon that we could possibly put up sonny bills hight lights of his debut to french union if there is any thnx and would be appreciated if possible
James

By Anonymous, at September 23, 2008 10:44 am
Dear James the Hooker,
Try typing in 'Sonny Bill Williams' in that neat little search bar way up there, top left.
That'll produce a few clips that you may be after. Besides them, there weren't any other highlights of him really.

Oh, and please use the requests section/email in future? thanks mate.

By GMC, at September 23, 2008 11:13 am
red card is deserved but don't think he was trying to take his head off just big hit to the chest.

By Anonymous, at September 23, 2008 4:59 pm
Suspend him all life, this is rugby- a team sport. let´s play it with some rules...he must apolagise.

By Anonymous, at September 23, 2008 9:23 pm
a few week's suspension should be sufficient. a red card isn't.

By Anonymous, at September 23, 2008 10:53 pm
That can kill. The red card was appropriate and I certainly hope he gets a few more weeks to think about putting someones body and life in jeopardy.

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 1:05 am
Good hit just too bad the dude that got knocked out bent into it so it's not the tacklers fault

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 3:33 am
"Suspend him all life,.." are you serious!?! do you even play rugby!?! i understand dirty play (intentional violence etc..) shouldn't be tolerated but whining about an accidental knock out is something esle. ask yourselves this question. do you cry and complain about every little infringement while the game is going on? (i hate those kind of guys:) ) then maybe you shouldn't play the sport of the gods. soccer is more your cup of tea!!

red card was sufficient.. nothing malicious about it, just lazy technique..

and i think leguizamon should chew more gum or something..he has a weak chin for a big guy. i'm a 2nd five and i got a forearm to the chin from a number 8.. but that kind of stuff happens a lot where i'm from.. LOL

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 4:12 am
Harsh!!!Hufanga should be suspended! Legui ponete bien pronto, q te queremos ver jugar!!!

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 4:28 am
"dirty" "discracfull" "red card"
HA !!!!! what the hell is wrong with some people it's RUGBY ,this shit happens, and don't we who appreaciate rugby 4 what it is and should be love iT!!!!! hard and high just the way i like it!!!!! hufanga - go you champ , don't let any softie stop you from giving us a bloody good show, keep it UP!!!!!!

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 2:24 pm
alguien traduzca esto al ingles por favor..
esos tackles altos son de cagones, cualquier cagon puede meterte un hombro en la cara, el que realmente tiene las bolas se te planta y te rompe el pecho de un Tackle con el hombro y los brazos alrededor del cuerpo...hufanga hizo eso por miedo, en ningun momento muestra intenciones de agacharse...

What this guy from Argentine said is that these kind of tackles are done by scarey players. It is very easy to put the arm on the opponent´s face, everybody can do it. The real player and the real Tackle is done when the arm hits on his chest and grabs him with his arms. hufanga did this because he was scare, he never tries to tackle Leguizamon.

sory for my english

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 4:26 pm
Swinging arm, high and dangerous. The red card was deserved and I reckon a suspension is in order. Other players have been suspended for far less. No room for this sort of thing in rugby, whether it was done purposely or not.

By Anonymous, at September 24, 2008 7:31 pm
I'm Argentinian, and a very vig Leguizamon's fan. I must say i was really worried when i saw Juan Manuel coming out from the field like that, because of a very big hit, but an unfortunate hit, in the end..

Besides being Leguizamón's fan, i don't think this diserves a suspension, besides the red, and maybe 1 match.. we, as rugby players, often, because of the adrenaline of the game, are involved in situations in which we don't mean to do some things, of course this is ilegal, but i don't think this has nothing to do with "bad intentions"

I'm very sorry for my bad english

Hugs

By Anonymous, at September 28, 2008 8:51 pm
Hard hit to the head,yellow card and a one weak suspension not more than that...

big hit nonetheless

By Anonymous, at October 19, 2008 10:29 pm