This past weekend of Vodacom United Rugby Championship results made the path to the playoffs a lot clearer for several teams. But at the same time as the dust was settling, one of the game’s most dangerous situations - the croc roll - made a reappearance twice in one weekend and both were given a red card.
Obviously from a South African point of view, the one on Friday night on Deon Fourie was the worst of the two, and could have ended the journeyman’s career. The fact he may well be ready for the final if things go well is a saving grace, because nobody wants to see something like that end a player’s career.
Fourie was over the ball when Irish international Ian Henderson tried to clean him out, twisting and falling on his knee in a blatant foul that deserved - and received - a red card.
On Saturday night in the Munster-Connacht game there was another incident deemed a croc roll - hooker Diarmuid Barron was red carded for a tackle that was deemed a croc roll, after he twisted him backwards and seemed to fall on the leg of Dylan Tierney-Martin.
Now, there were fundamental differences between the two croc-rolls - Henderson’s one seemed a classic one with the intent to injure while Barron was more clumsy and in the moment. But the result is always the same. A player had a high risk of injury due to an illegal act of a defender, and that is why World Rugby had to stamp it out of the game.
The fact that two appeared two years after World Rugby banned the croc-roll is strange in itself, and it isn’t lost on the casual observer that those two incidents, coupled with the horrific injury that World Player of the year Malcolm Marx suffered in July 2024 when he was tackled by both Caelin Doris and James Ryan - have all been committed by Irish players.
Whether that is something that is a coincidence or something more sinister waits to be seen, but both players are waiting on disciplinaries that will tell us just how serious the URC takes these incidents.
Marx - back in 2024 - suffered a tibia fracture from the incident and was out for months. Fourie looks like he may recover before the URC season is over, but that is more luck than anything else.
It has been suggested that Henderson’s croc-roll was unintentional, but that also doesn’t add up.
Players have known for two years now that it isn’t allowed, there is no way any right-thinking defence or ruck coach would coach such a move and the penalties are normally harsh for intentionally injuring another player.
When Henderson went into the clean, by twisting Fourie he made a decision, and one that he knew could be interpreted as a croc-roll. By falling on the knee of Fourie, that unintentional argument falls away. This was something that could be prevented and should have been.
To say it was unintentional is trying to shield a player from clearly illegal actions and gaslighting the rest of us who love the game.
It wasn’t surprising to see John Dobson call for the croc-roll to be removed from the game. What was surprising was to see two in a weekend two years after the ban.
“I feel very sorry for Deon,” Dobson lamented.
“That [croc-roll] has to be removed from the game and the player [offending] must be removed for the entire match.
“Deon has damaged the medial ligaments in his knee and we’ll have to learn that no player can survive that.
“If we don’t take that out, there is no room for turnovers, and if there are no [ball] stealers [at the breakdown], the game becomes like rugby league.
“I don’t think a player wants to injure a guy’s knee deliberately and I think the referee probably got it right. But it was a massive blow for us, especially with the form Deon is in. Paul [de Villiers] did a good job.”
To think that player behaviour can’t change is wrong. The spear tackle was a massive talking point a few seasons back and has almost disappeared from the game. As has the aerial collision where players were heavily penalised in the past. There are countless examples of how player behaviour can change.
The croc-roll is dangerous. It can end careers. It is an intent to injure and can have terrible consequences.
It needs to be removed from the game completely and URC officials should come down hard on the offenders.
There is no excuse. Simple as that.