Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: NRL ref knocked out cold following collision and knee to the head

Monday, July 27, 2009

NRL ref knocked out cold following collision and knee to the head

National Rugby League referee Tony De Las Heras was knocked out cold last Friday night after being bumped over then kneed in the head as the South Sydney Rabbitohs charged towards the tryline against the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.

Ref De Las Heras says he remembers nothing from the incident which left him lying motionless on the turf. Jamie Simpson accidentally collided with him, before Broncos forward Tonie Carroll knocked him unconscious with the knee, sending him to hospital.

"I don't remember anything, fair dinkum," De Las Heras said afterwards. "I'm OK. I'm still a bit dazed and have got a couple of headaches. I'm still pretty crook. I'm just nowhere."

Simpson, who hurdled over De Las Heras after bumping him over, actually suffered a grade one groin strain, later describing the collision as a freak accident.

"I was just speaking to Tony then and he said there was nothing I could do," Simpson said.

"He said I was heading for a try if I went the other way but I ran into him. I thought I was in for a try - all I could see was the white line, which is why I couldn't see him.

"I told him I was sorry, that I didn't mean it and I wanted to just check up on how he is."

The man who’s knee actually made contact with the ref, Carroll, missed the next match after injuring himself from the contact with the refs 'noggin'.

"That knee he whacked the ref with is a bit sore," Broncos coach Ivan Henjak said.

"I'm hoping it's not a long-term thing with TC, maybe another week."

Time: 02:41

Aaaaw that looked pretty painful. Freak accident if ever I've seen one - all three people involved end up injured lol

By Scotsdale, at July 27, 2009 6:03 pm
Just in preemptive response to many bitching about rugby league on a primarily rugby union site:

Shut up.

As for the video itself; this game (both codes) never ceases to amaze me.

By bigox, at July 27, 2009 6:04 pm
Ye wouldn't see hits that big in MMA.

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2009 6:06 pm
awch! looks painfull, been concused not nice at all!

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2009 6:08 pm
Ouch!

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2009 6:24 pm
guaranteed he had no idea where he was when he came through!

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2009 6:41 pm
Ouch!!!! thats a bit brutal.... fair enough iv seen a few soft hits on refs in some vid on rd but thats a real blow

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2009 6:55 pm
ugh.. nasty hit.

Glad to see TC immediately realize the severity and rush over to signal for help. Classy.

Especially given the fact he ended up hurt himself, but realized someone else could be much worse off.

By cheyanqui, at July 27, 2009 7:12 pm
the commentators makes this video. it's like there down the pub it's brilliant. south hem commentators all seem to be like that love it.

By james, at July 27, 2009 8:34 pm
whos the team playing in pink they seem to be everywere

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2009 9:17 pm
Why the hell did that player try to hurdle the ref? I am sorry but that accident was clearly avoidable, he saw the ref went down before he got anywhere near him.

By Anonymous, at July 27, 2009 9:52 pm
the broncos (from brisbane) coulored maroon and the other ones are the rabbitohs (from sydney)

the toughest job to stay out of the way

By sebastian, at July 27, 2009 9:59 pm
OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH ! FUCK!!!!

By pingpong, at July 27, 2009 11:30 pm
Hey bigox shut up yourself! Nobody has said anything about league or done any bitching so why start complaining?! DUMBASS!!!!

By evenbiggerOx, at July 27, 2009 11:32 pm
"Why the hell did that player try to hurdle the ref? I am sorry but that accident was clearly avoidable, he saw the ref went down before he got anywhere near him."

Have you played the game? Or have you ever played it at a high level? Obviously not because anyone who did would know that everything happened too fast for the hurdling player to recognize and he made the best reaction he could to what was a freak accident.

By Canadian Content, at July 27, 2009 11:33 pm
to evenbiggerOx:

As someone who has been around since the site's conception there has been plenty of anti-League feedback on every League video posted by The Dump.

It was a tongue in cheek shout out to those people, letting them know its not appreciated.

By bigox, at July 28, 2009 12:20 am
yeahh sorry to burst your bubbles league fans.. but league will not last long in the future.. as many sports are rising.. and one of them is not league..

1.OLYMPICS
2.SOCCER
3.RUGBY UNION!!

By Anonymous, at July 28, 2009 1:23 am
oh man you can hear the impact of his knee hit the ref's head......

By sacricketer, at July 28, 2009 1:45 am
Everyone who's anti-league, your officially idiots.
You shouldn't breed, because your irrational aversion to a game which is almost the same as the game you love makes you poor genetic specemins.
And come to Australia and explain that league is dying. If anything you'll find that it's union that struggles, not league.
Besides, why do you care,t his is just an awesome video of a ref getting owned.

By Lennox, at July 28, 2009 2:34 am
'motionless'??? I'd go more for, 'spasming' cause he was definitely twitching or something...

By Ryan, at July 28, 2009 3:55 am
Sure I'll hit it up mate, when I'm hitting up your sister.

By Lennox, at July 28, 2009 5:30 am
Real mature Lennox, get hardcore with your keyboard. i live in aussie and if anything rugby is starting to catch on in younger grades, being a colts player i would know. i dont understand why people are bitching about the video its just showing a bad incident, they're not promoting league just enjoy it for what it is.

By HmmYeh, at July 28, 2009 7:13 am
For God's sake, I expect this kind of attitude from a bunch of football fans but not amongst rugby players.

League or Union, both game's has its differences but it's still the under the game we all love and play - Rugby.

So stop this useless bickering with each other and save it for the football fags.

By Random, at July 28, 2009 7:14 am
damn that is brootal, check out the size of tony carrol's freakin thighs!! lights OUT!!

By Spartacus, at July 28, 2009 8:05 am
If the moderators did a clean sweep and removed the anonymous comments, these would be a lot more enjoyable to read.

Hopefully, the ref didn't suffer anything permanent - like Dan said, those tree trunks Carroll calls legs could kill a bear.

Players/referees falling in front of you never lead to anything good happening; I had a teammate fall chasing someone down and as I tried to hurdle him, he stood up, and instead of taking a knee to the back of the skull, I was the one that tripped up and broke a collarbone.

By Seth, at July 28, 2009 9:02 am
Tell that to Tuqiri. Then run like kell before he rips off your arm and beats you to death with it.

By Jon, at July 28, 2009 9:34 am
Oh yeah, and I guess your including Jason Robinson in that too hey? Weak little man who couldn't play rugby right?
Your ignorance is astounding.

By jon, at July 28, 2009 9:35 am
Ouch. Cool vid. Always nice to see incidents from both codes of the game, despite me being an ardent union player/fan only.

Extremely childish to have a go at League. It screams of insecurity.
I honestly dont see what harm it does to show league clips once in a while, especially if they're incidents like this, that could have happened in Union too..

cheers RD, and good to see the Anonymous w*anker comments are removed.

By FrankyH, at July 28, 2009 11:14 am
Jeebus it hurts to watch that!

I hope there's no lasting injury on the ref.

By Anonymous, at July 28, 2009 11:37 am
The ref's ok, hurt, but he'll be back reffing in a few weeks.
How's the sound when Carrol hits him though. Damn.

By jon, at July 28, 2009 12:22 pm
OWCH!!

By Anonymous, at July 28, 2009 2:57 pm
how come there were 2 referees?

By tbray, at July 28, 2009 3:34 pm
shame he got in the way -

that Simpson fron the Bunnies had some serious gas

By Matt_Drinks_New, at July 29, 2009 1:35 am
Another reason why having 2 refs on the pitch is a BAD idea...

Hope he's doing well though.

By Anonymous, at July 29, 2009 2:08 am
Ewww rugby league

By Anonymous, at July 29, 2009 3:30 am
maybe I'm in the minority here but I grew up playing both League and Union in Austraia and still watch both when I can. They're both great although the prominence of league and AFL in Australia drains a lot of good potential Union guys out of the game which doesn't help us. I hope this website posts more league highlights as it's difficult to access here in the States.

By Anonymous, at July 29, 2009 2:56 pm
Its the commentators that make this?

OOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

Brilliant..... you can even hear the crowd when they showed the reply.

By Cheech, at July 29, 2009 8:34 pm
i was at this game and the crowd was incredibly happy when this happened lol

By 12, at July 30, 2009 7:34 am
how many refs were inside the field? correct me if i'm wrong, but i saw two refs inside at the time of the accident, and where i play rugby there's only one inside, and the one's on the sides (don't remember the specific name :P )

By Anonymous, at August 03, 2009 6:36 am
It's the NRL, this season they decided to have two refs on the field, one controls the game and the other just patrols the rucks.

By Jon, at August 04, 2009 11:47 am
More clips with 'Rabbits' Warren commentary please!

By Bubsa, at August 04, 2009 4:02 pm