Headbutt no accident
Paddy Lewis
DESPITE having a few jolly japes with the chaps about Keven Mealamu’s flying headbutt on England rugby captain Lewis Moody last week, I was quickly shut up when the video of the incident arrived on several new websites.
Mealamu clearly pulled Moody’s jersey up to get a better shot at his head. Unless someone out of camera shot fired him out of a cannon, it was 100% intentional.
For the All Blacks to successfully appeal, using, as the New Zealand Herald put it, an argument that “Mealamu did not intentionally aim a headbutt at England’s Lewis Moody during the November 6 test at Twickenham and the panel agreed” is blatantly out of order with the evidence (search ‘Kevin Mealamu headbutt’ on YouTube if you don’t believe me).
It also reported that “assistant coach Steve Hansen, who was one of Mealamu’s representatives at the original hearing and the appeal, said it was some vindication for a player who in 82 tests had not even had a yellow card”.
How stupid are our news media? Does no one remember the Brendan Cannon incident from about 2004? Didn’t he and Keven get yellow carded? Yep. Didn’t he help Tana with the spear tackle on Brian O’Driscoll during the Lions tour? Yep.
There is an increasing voice amongst the more experienced rugby writers that they are not going to be the All Blacks’ lapdogs.
Hansen has banged on at length to the media about being “patriotic” and doing what’s best for the team. The NZRU’s fortress mentality is getting ridiculous.
I wonder what would have happened had Mealamu had crossed the fine line between smacking someone in the head with his not-insubstantial swede and causing concussion or worse?
I remember reading a news story a few years back about someone headbutted outside a pub. They went home complaining of dizziness and didn’t wake up the next morning.
How would Hansen have explained that one away?
There’s always room for biff in rugby. One of the hardest locks I have ever played with used to give his more esteemed representative opponents a wee uppercut or an elbow at the first lineout. “Just hard enough to make them wonder if I’ll do it next time,” he said.
Others I have played with or managed will use the same physical tactics – cleaning out someone from a ruck with more force than is needed, or perhaps pushing their face into the mud as they get up.
The difference between them and the All Blacks is that they know there is absolutely no justification for their actions if they are caught by the referee.
The holier-than-thou approach from our premier rugby side must come back to bite them eventually. There is only so often you can pull the “unblemished record” rabbit out of the old moth-eaten hat before a citing officer stands up and calls “bollocks”.
Watch the video of Moody getting hit. Set aside the fact he is wearing a white jersey, and it’s hard to see how the All Blacks could possibly have defended Mealamu – family man with Christian values or not – in the appeal.
All it shows is that there is a mentality that puts this team above all else, including the law. More fool the appeals panel for believing the bullshit they were handed.
Mealamu clearly pulled Moody’s jersey up to get a better shot at his head. Unless someone out of camera shot fired him out of a cannon, it was 100% intentional.
For the All Blacks to successfully appeal, using, as the New Zealand Herald put it, an argument that “Mealamu did not intentionally aim a headbutt at England’s Lewis Moody during the November 6 test at Twickenham and the panel agreed” is blatantly out of order with the evidence (search ‘Kevin Mealamu headbutt’ on YouTube if you don’t believe me).
It also reported that “assistant coach Steve Hansen, who was one of Mealamu’s representatives at the original hearing and the appeal, said it was some vindication for a player who in 82 tests had not even had a yellow card”.
How stupid are our news media? Does no one remember the Brendan Cannon incident from about 2004? Didn’t he and Keven get yellow carded? Yep. Didn’t he help Tana with the spear tackle on Brian O’Driscoll during the Lions tour? Yep.
There is an increasing voice amongst the more experienced rugby writers that they are not going to be the All Blacks’ lapdogs.
Hansen has banged on at length to the media about being “patriotic” and doing what’s best for the team. The NZRU’s fortress mentality is getting ridiculous.
I wonder what would have happened had Mealamu had crossed the fine line between smacking someone in the head with his not-insubstantial swede and causing concussion or worse?
I remember reading a news story a few years back about someone headbutted outside a pub. They went home complaining of dizziness and didn’t wake up the next morning.
How would Hansen have explained that one away?
There’s always room for biff in rugby. One of the hardest locks I have ever played with used to give his more esteemed representative opponents a wee uppercut or an elbow at the first lineout. “Just hard enough to make them wonder if I’ll do it next time,” he said.
Others I have played with or managed will use the same physical tactics – cleaning out someone from a ruck with more force than is needed, or perhaps pushing their face into the mud as they get up.
The difference between them and the All Blacks is that they know there is absolutely no justification for their actions if they are caught by the referee.
The holier-than-thou approach from our premier rugby side must come back to bite them eventually. There is only so often you can pull the “unblemished record” rabbit out of the old moth-eaten hat before a citing officer stands up and calls “bollocks”.
Watch the video of Moody getting hit. Set aside the fact he is wearing a white jersey, and it’s hard to see how the All Blacks could possibly have defended Mealamu – family man with Christian values or not – in the appeal.
All it shows is that there is a mentality that puts this team above all else, including the law. More fool the appeals panel for believing the bullshit they were handed.
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