“Someone shouted to me, when I was on the ground, ‘Are you still alive?!’ I was like ‘Uuuuuggghhh’.”
Jerry Flannery still grimaces when he recalls the impact.
For Brian O’Driscoll it was Jonny Wilkinson. For Sean O’Brien and Chris Robshaw, the name Jaques Burger came immediately to mind.
Rugby players don’t have to mull for long when they are asked for the biggest tackle they’ve ever been on the receiving end. There is a recollection, a wince and a sense of bewilderment still about how they were still able to keep going [in most cases] afterwards.
A while back, we asked O’Brien about the player that rattled his cage most in his decade, plus change, in the game. “Yer man, Jacques Burger, the lad at Saracens,” he instantly replied.
“That [Heineken Cup] game over there, in 2010. It was off a five-man lineout and Johnny Sexton just said, ‘Crash this up’. I did but I ran into him.
“I remember thinking that every bit of air had come out of me. I went up and went on but I wasn’t going too far. That’s probably the biggest hit I’ve ever had. We met in the middle and the two of us fell down on the ground.”
On the latest episode of Baz & Andrew’s House of Rugby, Jerry Flannery recalled a similar moment when discussing some of the big carries and hits in the latest edition of the World Cup. For him, it came
Flannery’s crunching encounter was with Scotland blindside Jason White while he was on Six Nations duty for Ireland.
Ahead of the game, former Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan had warned his players to come up with an exit strategy if the first ball carrier was repelled back.
To tee this up, take a look at who was lurking in the loose for a ball-carrier that was coming from a standing start. This clip is what happened to Kevin Maggs when he had a run at White:
During the show, Andrew Trimble and Jerry Flannery recalled the bruising encounter:
ANDREW: Eddie was talking about the first carry, when you concede. And the second carrier. Jason White came around the corner and didn’t, like, he just timed it perfectly. And just cruised cruised into it and sprinted up. But things like that happen.
JERRY: Absolutely maimed me! It was years ago. We were playing against Scotland and I think Eddie (O’Sullivan) was like, ‘You don’t go around the corner here. You’ll get killed!’. And I was like, ‘I’ll f***ing show you’.
And, honestly man, someone carried and didn’t make much of a f***ing gain but I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to show Eddie’ and then, as I was getting the ball it was just like, ‘OOOoooooooohhhhhhh, my soul has been taken away from me!’ And, literally, someone shouted to me, when I was on the ground, ‘Are you still alive?!’ I was like ‘Uuuuuggghhh’
ANDREW: Jason White was like this – ‘Looking for this? This is your soul!’.
You’ll never forget your biggest smashing.
CATCH THE LATEST HOUSE OF RUGBY EPISODE HERE
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The latest episode sees Barry Murphy, Andrew Trimble and Jerry Flannery praise Iain Henderson and Conor Murray, look ahead to big World Cup games on the horizon.
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