I remember hooking against some clown in Devon in the 90s who was apparently on his last last warning before a lifetime ban. He was sat in the pub fully changed in his playing kit glaring and snarling at our team as we walked through to the changing rooms. The bloke was clearly off his head and frankly was a liability.Puja wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2024 9:00 pm Personal story time - earlier this season we were playing the team top of our table (this being a very, very long way down the pyramid - we're a 3rds team). They were very motivated, as a win would see them guaranteed promotion, but their tighthead took things too far. From the first scrum, he broke his outside bind and sent 4-5 punches into our loosehead. Now, I don't like a punch up personally, but if you're going to do it, at least have the minerals to go face to face, not throwing cheap shots when your target has his arms bound.
He did this for the next three scrums, and then dragged one of our young players from a ruck by the neck. Our captain went over and requested firmly that he cut it out, only for the fucker to headbutt him. Unfortunately, the referee turned around just in time to see Liam land his retaliatory punch and it was us that went down to 14.
The opposition took the dirty fucker off as a substitution at that point and we assumed they'd done it as a gesture because they'd seen he had lost control. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a poor assumption - he came back on in the second half and broke someone's neck by catching him lying prone at the back of a ruck after the ball had gone, and dropping his entire weight knee-first onto the back of his neck. I will note for clarity - without any provocation or any benefit to his team, the ball had long since gone and Kev was lying face down winded.
He was taken away by his own team and substituted again, this time permanently, before anyone could get to him. His picture has been sent to our second XV who play in the league that his team've just been promoted to, mind, so he'll get a reception if he plays.
The thing that annoys me the most is that, when we cited him, his club defended him in the hearing, lying through their teeth that there'd been no trouble in the game except for Liam's "entirely unprovoked" punch, and their tighthead hadn't even thrown a punch let alone hospitalised someone. They must know who they're playing with - how can you condone that? How can you share a pitch with it? It's not as though we're competing for high level trophies either - this is social rugby at near the very bottom of the pyramid!
Kev is okay (for certain values), just to let you know - not paralysed, but in a neck brace and awaiting further investigations to see how bad it is. But that's the reddest red I've personally seen.
Puja
He was also a shit player.
I’ve met a fair few hard cases who didn’t mind a good scrap but thankfully not too many utterly nasty bastards who just wanted to hurt people through cheap shots.
