Former Springbok prop Julian Redelinghuys says that rugby should be wary of sacrificing its physical attributes in pursuit of player safety.
Redelinghuys, who played eight Tests for the Springboks between 2014 and 2016, was forced into retirement at the age of 27 after he suffered a serious neck injury during a Currie Cup match.
Speaking in his capacity as Lions scrum coach, Redelinghuys was asked about an incident in last week’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship game against the Vodacom Bulls, when Carlu Sadie was adjudged to have committed a dangerous clean out on Bulls hooker Johan Grobbelaar and was penalised.
“I’m all for player safety,” Redelinghuys said.”But, the one thing I enjoyed about rugby growing up was watching guys like Bakkies [Botha] cleaning out players at the ruck. I think a lot of us fell in love with the toughness of rugby.
“I know I’m in dangerous water when I say this, and rugby does well [still] allowing players to be tough, but we must be careful that it doesn’t become a soft game.
“If there is a good cleanout it should be rewarded. It is nice to see guys putting in effort, putting in a tough tackle and carrying hard. That is what I fell in love with.”
Redelinghuys sympathised with referees when it comes to another grey area of rugby: the scrums.
“It is very difficult to ref the scrum. There are so many things that change in the scrum to look for. We try to pick up what cues certain refs look for. We try to give them good pictures on those cues.
“I have sympathy for them. When you dominate a lot of scrums in a row you’d hope to get favourable calls where there is doubt in those 50-50 calls.”
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