Top 14 – “I have rarely seen a knockout like that”: Sam James evacuated to hospital, Nolann Le Garrec in shock

The match between Montpellier and Racing 92, which saw the MHR narrowly win (21-17), ended in confusion. And in worry too. In the final action of the match, the Ile-de-France residents went back eighty meters to give themselves an opportunity to win but were stopped by a forward from Sam James on the opposing 22 meters. Except that the full-back remained motionless on the ground, causing referee Tual Trainini to immediately blow the whistle to call the doctors. His teammates also quickly came to the news, and the agitation quickly rose up a notch around him, the trainers demanding with great gestures the provision of the stretcher. The scene lasted for long minutes during which James did not move on the ground. After being carefully placed on the stretcher to leave the field and join an ambulance in the parking lot, he went directly to the Montpellier hospital. “He was unconscious and he convulsedconfided Nolann Le Garrec after the match. I've rarely seen a knockout like that.”

Szarzewski: “The news is reassuring”

Regarding the player's health, and this is obviously the most important thing, his coach Dimitri Szarzeski quickly showed positive signs: “The news is reassuring. He has regained consciousness and the doctor is rather optimistic. Obviously, it's quite impressive since he remained unconscious on the ground for a while. But he should be fine.” Then come the consequences of this final sequence of play. In fact, Mr. Trainini asked to watch the video again on the giant screen of the stadium and, after dissecting it, he decided to end the match. In the images, we see that Sam James, while falling, was hit in the face by Jan Serfontein's arm. Which made him lose consciousness and therefore let go of the ball. But the referee considered that it was “a completely accidental act of play”. An explanation which did not at all convince Gaël Fickou, captain of Racing 92 who expressed his disapproval at length. “I don’t understand the decision either, to be honest.explained Le Garrec. I'll let people talk about it but I've been watching rugby since I was little and I've rarely seen a match that ends with an action like that. Afterwards, I am not in a position to judge directly but, when we see the state of our player on the ground, it raises questions. He was knocked out instantly and the match ended there. It’s a bit weird.”

Le Garrec: “That raises questions, doesn’t it?”

This created a double frustration in the Ile-de-France ranks, as the Racing 92 players then seemed able to reverse the course of things. “I wonder about this stoppage of the matchdetailed Szarzewski. From what I understood and I haven't seen the footage yet, the referee would have said that it wasn't done on purpose, that it was accidental. But all high tackles are accidental. Feleti Kaitu'u, when he tackled Uelse (and received a yellow card, Editor’s note)it's accidental too. He didn't put his arm around this player's neck on purpose. “Of course there is an extenuating circumstance because Sam was falling but that's part of the rule of rugby.” A version corroborated by Le Garrec: “We need to review the images. It won't be up to me to talk about it and there will be enough discussions around that but doing an action from eighty meters, then seeing it stop on a not too controlled gesture on one of our players and a knockout like that, that raises questions, doesn’t it?” Although Szarzewski wanted to add: “It would be too easy to blame our defeat on Tual Trainini because we also had the opportunities to score and we didn't know how to do it.”