Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Referee sandwiched between a prop and a hard place

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Referee sandwiched between a prop and a hard place

It's a tough job at the best of times, but as French referee David Rosich found out when Bourgoin played Castres this past weekend, get yourself in the wrong position and you could end up leaving on a stretcher.

Over the years there's been a few bad referee knocks featured here on RD, but this is probably the worst as I don't recall the last time we saw an official actually carried off the pitch, on a stretcher, with a neck brace on.

Rosich got himself in an awkward position as he had his back turned, more than likely looking at the offside line, then got knocked from one side, and hit from the other.

The microphone on him created a similar effect to what we heard with Flip Van Der Merwe's hit recently, except probably worse (better?). The impressive thing was that he managed to get the whistle in his mouth before hitting the ground, although it can't be heard clearly on this clip.

The 39 year old was attended to immediately by the medics from both teams, and was put in a neck brace and whisked off to hospital for medical examinations. This clip condenses the incident though, and it did actually take a good 10 minutes to get him sorted out, perhaps because of the nature of a clash on a man not expecting it, hence the extra precautions taken.

"I was not expecting it and my body was completely relaxed. I was examined there and then the next day by the doctor," said Rosich, who is meant to be officiating this coming weekend.

"I still have headaches," he added.

Time: 02:10

first, dream come true

By Anonymous, at April 21, 2011 9:31 am
brave attempt at blowing the whistle as he went down there! :)

By I hate ppl who write "First!", at April 21, 2011 10:04 am
Ref til the end, went down blowing his whistle!

By Anonymous, at April 21, 2011 10:20 am
no arms in that tackle must have been from the islands got to be yellow ban would be slightly harsh though

ps what was that crunching sound head or ribs got to of hurt

By Anonymous, at April 21, 2011 10:40 am
Didn't look like much?

By Anonymous, at April 21, 2011 10:42 am
I thought it was his neck... Fortunately, i think he just took a huge shock on the head. His micro must have been destroyed which could explain this insane noise

By Colombes, at April 21, 2011 10:49 am
ooouuuu tastey.....
its a bit evil but i had a chuckle when i saw it...
hope hes ok.
looks like the replacement ref is wearing body armour :)

By Ronan, at April 21, 2011 11:56 am
haha that 23 sure was zeroed in on his line!

By Anonymous, at April 21, 2011 12:26 pm
at least thats another clip for the "rugby-ref-is-a -hard-job" videos on youtube!

By Anonymous, at April 21, 2011 1:08 pm
Thats going to be on try savers & rib breakers 12

By Anonymous, at April 21, 2011 1:17 pm
noew refs are going to be running out the tunnel putting of the scrum caps

By Unknown, at April 21, 2011 2:31 pm
Ouch!
I don't envy him.
Hope he will be okay soon

By Guy, at April 21, 2011 4:42 pm
That was a HORRIBLE sound...

Had that been a player i dont think it would have been as nasty but the fact it was ref made that sound so much more nasty!

did he actually blow his whistle then? poor prop, he was in for the try lol...

By No.7, at April 21, 2011 5:39 pm
the crunching sound was probably the ref mic

By mat, at April 21, 2011 10:37 pm
I didn't mean to laugh, but that looked like a cartoon.

Tough game!

By ppp, at April 22, 2011 3:17 pm
The 23 is either stupid or blind, you cant use the reff as a tackle bag, silly prop.

By Anonymous, at April 24, 2011 4:13 pm