Callum Clarke Assaults Fellow Professional?

Clegg

Clarke could be in serious trouble for an incident which occured today in the Northampton Saints Vs Leicester Tigers game.

Clarke was contesting for the ball at the breakdown when the referee blew his whistle for a Northampton penalty. Onscreen you could see Clarke grab the arm of Tigers player Rob Hawkins and bend it to unnatural angle. Hawkins immediately screamed out in pain and stated writhing in agony.

Do you think Clarke did this purposefully? If he did hen he should be banned for life. Going out to specifically injure an opponent is also grounds for a criminal prosecution.

Here is the video. I'll let you make your own minds up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d_5Vlsyekio

Fishooks12

Clegg wrote: »

Clarke could be in serious trouble for an incident which occured today in the Northampton Saints Vs Leicester Tigers game.

Clarke was contesting for the ball at the breakdown when the referee blew his whistle for a Northampton penalty. Onscreen you could see Clarke grab the arm of Tigers player Rob Hawkins and bend it to unnatural angle. Hawkins immediately screamed out in pain and stated writhing in agony.

Do you think Clarke did this purposefully? If he did hen he should be banned for life. Going out to specifically injure an opponent is also grounds for a criminal prosecution.

Here is the video. I'll let you make your own minds up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d_5Vlsyekio

Wow, what is it with Northampton and being breeding ground for rugby scumbags

Clearly trys to hurt the guy, plain as day

irishbucsfan

Has to be a very very long ban.

Hagz

Wow, that is hard to watch. Hard to see it as anything but intended as well. Was it picked up by the commentators?

MungBean

Looks nasty alright, was Hawkins arm ok after ? Wouldnt say ban him for life, you'd want to do some real damage to a guy to be banned for life. Although scummy its not the worse thing I've ever seen.

Six weeks perhaps.

Fishooks12

MungBean wrote: »

Looks nasty alright, was Hawkins arm ok after ? Wouldnt say ban him for life, you'd want to do some real damage to a guy to be banned for life. Although scummy its not the worse thing I've ever seen.

Couple weeks perhaps.

Couple of weeks?

I hope you're talking in terms of prison time. If he meant to do it it's one of the worst acts of thuggery in the history of the pro game

Could easily of broken his arm, which by the looks of it, was what was intended

irishbucsfan

Pretty sure Hawkins has a dislocated elbow.

MungBean

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Couple of weeks?

I hope you're talking in terms of prison time. If he meant to do it it's one of the worst acts of thuggery in the history of the pro game

Could easily of broken his arm, which by the looks of it, was what was intended

Sorry changed that, I was trying to say it would be dealt with on the lower end of things if the guys arm was ok. Got muddled, edited it and confused myself.

Considering bans for eye gouging, stamps to the head, dangerous tackling and whatnot I'd imagine they wont go to town on him. Not that I think they shouldnt but I just cant see it.

Hagz

MungBean wrote: »

Looks nasty alright, was Hawkins arm ok after ?

Had to leave the pitch. The extent isn't know at the moment, but he says he's gutted about the injury on his twitter.

durkadurka

Are we talking about 6 white yeah?

Looks nasty.

MungBean

Hagz wrote: »

Had to leave the pitch. The extent isn't know at the moment, but he says he's gutted about the injury on his twitter.

Ah right well if it has that much of an impact on the other player then they may throw the book at him. And rightly so.

pickarooney

Hagz wrote: »

MungBean wrote: »

Looks nasty alright, was Hawkins arm ok after ?

Had to leave the pitch. The extent isn't know at the moment, but he says he's gutted about the injury on his twitter.

An injured twitter is no laughing matter.

PhatPiggins

When you consider what Aurélien Rougerie sued (and won) Phil Greening for thats a case for damages.

Its hardly surprising Jim Mallinder wasn't even considered for the England job when the first remit of the new coach was to clean up their reputation.

shuffol

Severity of injury shouldnt be a determining factor when deciding punishment IMO, if a player exposes a fellow pro to an unacceptably high risk of serious injury then they should have the book thrown at them, this is clearly the case here, despicable act

ANXIOUS

Im not 100% he did it intentionally. But nothing would surprise me from that team.

MungBean

shuffol wrote: »

Severity of injury shouldnt be a determining factor when deciding punishment IMO, if a player exposes a fellow pro to an unacceptably high risk of serious injury then they should have the book thrown at them, this is clearly the case here, despicable act

I agree but you know that an injury to the player will make the incident that much more serious to the citing commission. Considering they usually knock time off for good conduct, admittance of guilt and any showing of regret it should swing both ways and more time should be added if there is injury or any lack of regret, admittance or poor conduct.

thomond2006

PhatPiggins wrote: »

When you consider what Aurélien Rougerie sued (and won) Phil Greening for thats a case for damages.

What did Greening do to him?

What Clark did there was absolute dirt, what is it with Northampton players?!

PhatPiggins

thomond2006 wrote: »

What did Greening do to him?

What Clark did there was absolute dirt, what is it with Northampton players?!

Hand off to Rougerie's throat that he needed a couple of surgeries to correct his breathing. Didn't look like much at the time and it was within the laws of the game.

Monty Burnz

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Hand off to Rougerie's throat that he needed a couple of surgeries to correct his breathing. Didn't look like much at the time and it was within the laws of the game.

I thought he was found guilty specifically because it was foul play and outside the spirit of the game?

durkadurka

Here's some more of his greatest hits....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNgWg8kGMWk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Fishooks12

durkadurka wrote: »

Here's some more of his greatest hits....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNgWg8kGMWk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

He obviously has serious temper issues, you'd have to question if he should be let near a rugby pitch after what he's done

That head butt is horrible

Fishooks12

https://twitter.com/#!/Calumclark89 he certainly doesn't give a **** about what he did to Hawkins anyway

Fishooks12

http://www.northamptonsaints.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11779&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=60

Saints fans think he did nothing wrong

I'd like to think if a Munster player did something similar my bias wouldn't have me defending such a cowardly act

definitely shouldn't be seen again on a pitch in 2012

Flincher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNgWg8kGMWk

The kid's got form. No place for players like him in the sport. Lads are always going to get injured from big hits, landing awkwardly, etc. I'm sure everyone here who has played a bit has picked up a knock of some description. Tempers also flare up, and most of us have probably thrown the odd punch. It happens - you take your punishment, move on and laugh about it afterwards.

It is as clear as day that Clarke has gone out to deliberately injure a player after a whistle was blown. You can't put it down to anything. It is just a malicious disregard for the safety of another player. Normally, I don't like to see sport and law mixing, as it did in the Rougerie case, but I hope the player in this case does take action.

Like I said, when you play rugby, you know you're exposing yourself to risk of injury, and I suppose you consent to some level of physical punishment. But sharing a pitch with a player who carries out something like this is beyond what anyone signs up to.



EDIT: That's the same link as durkadurka's above.

PhatPiggins

durkadurka wrote: »

Here's some more of his greatest hits....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNgWg8kGMWk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The face on the Kiwi he's hitting is priceless 'did a fly just lad on my arm?'

Caribs

The clown has some form alright, cheap shot after cheap shot. The game is physical enough without scumbags like that on the pitch. From my playing days there were always the lads that would throw a dig but I don't think that equates with what he's done. Hopefully he'll get a decent ban or meet another teams enforcer that will sort him out!

Sindri

Have to say it looks like he knew what he was doing.

durkadurka

PhatPiggins wrote: »

The face on the Kiwi he's hitting is priceless 'did a fly just lad on my arm?'

The lad he head butted in the second incident wasnt of the same opinion though.

justsomebloke

Ok haven't got time to read this at the moment, however any player abus when a mod gets around to reading it will result in a ban

Otacon

I hope the library is thrown at him TBH. Despicable behaviour.

.ak

Thought I was watching a UFC video there... :eek:

JRant

.ak wrote: »

Thought I was watching a UFC video there... :eek:

That was an arm-bar that Frank Mirr would be proud of.

Chavways

JRant wrote: »

That was an arm-bar that Frank Mirr would be proud of.

Where was Herb Dean when we needed him?

JRant

Chavways wrote: »

JRant wrote: »

That was an arm-bar that Frank Mirr would be proud of.

Where was Herb Dean when we needed him?

Was thinking the same thing myself. Maybe they should have Big John McCarthy ref all games Clarke is involved in from now on

Monty Burnz

I've seen nothing about this in the UK press, and he seems not to have been cited.

The perfect crime?

Fishooks12

I doubt it, the video has a huge amount of hits on youtube

Hawkins aint happy either tbh, I tweeted about it last night and both his sisters retweeted me so if they're not happy about it I doubt Rob is either

Someone was saying earlier that Leicester were considering involving the police

Monty Burnz

Fishooks12 wrote: »

I doubt it, the video has a huge amount of hits on youtube

Hawkins aint happy either tbh, I tweeted about it last night and both his sisters retweeted me so if they're not happy about it I doubt Rob is either

Someone was saying earlier that Leicester were considering involving the police

This would be a farce of GAA proportions if the RFU ignored it and the police looked at a prosecution. I hope to god they do something about it because Clarke clearly has form and the chances of this being accidental are vanishingly tiny.

PhatPiggins

Leicester fans are rightly livid over it:

http://www.leicestertigers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34112&sid=ba0568e2c8256539bc08b038c719437e

There was enough bad blood between these clubs as is

.ak

Actually can't believe there's still nothing in the press about this yet. Has it gone past the 'citing window'?

Monty Burnz

.ak wrote: »

Actually can't believe there's still nothing in the press about this yet. Has it gone past the 'citing window'?

There was a mention about it in a local Leicester paper quoting the Leicester manager saying that he'd trust the citing guy to do his job. Looks like he misplaced his trust.

rrpc

.ak wrote: »

Actually can't believe there's still nothing in the press about this yet. Has it gone past the 'citing window'?

I'm not sure at what time the game kicked off but there's 48 hours after a game to cite players. Unless the game kicked off on Sunday morning there's still time for a citing to be made.

irishbucsfan

rrpc wrote: »

.ak wrote: »

Actually can't believe there's still nothing in the press about this yet. Has it gone past the 'citing window'?

I'm not sure at what time the game kicked off but there's 48 hours after a game to cite players. Unless the game kicked off on Sunday morning there's still time for a citing to be made.

It was some time on Sunday. After the championship I think so probably 2pm.

If there is no citing its a disgrace.

buck65

Jesus the more I hear about this team the happier I am they didn't win the Heineken Cup last year.

.ak

Yeah, I was kinda hoping they were going to be the new English team, playing exciting rugby and perhaps breathing new life into English rugby. But turns out they're just as oldschool as anything. Ashton, Clarke, Hartley, Lawes... People may say this kind of reaction is over the top, and none of them have done anything to warrant the stick they get on these forums.. but seriously, no smoke without fire...

5pm today is the deadline I think

rrpc

.ak wrote: »

Yeah, I was kinda hoping they were going to be the new English team, playing exciting rugby and perhaps breathing new life into English rugby. But turns out they're just as oldschool as anything. Ashton, Clarke, Hartley, Lawes... People may say this kind of reaction is over the top, and none of them have done anything to warrant the stick they get on these forums.. but seriously, no smoke without fire...

Unfortunately this kind of behaviour comes from the top. When cheating is condoned by the management (and in some well known cases, encouraged) the players will resort to indiscipline whenever the opportunity or 'need' arises.

Burgo

Deleted User wrote: »

5pm today is the deadline I think

Yeah 5pm according to the tigers forum.

nada?

Tox56

If Hartley is cited but not Clarke that's a bit of a farce.

Burgo

"The RFU disciplinary panel have until late afternoon on Thurs to cite any Saints players for thier part in the incident."

https://twitter.com/#!/martin_crowson/status/182109636147687426