Suspected broken Nose, Broken Jaw and has lost a number of teeth!!

Legal tackle apparently

www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... r_Russell/ Tony Smith's comments

www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... r_Russell/ Tony Smith's comments

I'll have to wait and watch it back but I just thought it was a poor attempt by Russel and he caught some Fire on his way down...

I tried to see it on the big screen but I couldnt see anything conclusive to say it was a shocker...

We are heading for a very, very serious injury soon in our sport. Players are not learning that attacks to the head using the shoulder/shoulder-barges are outlawed, referee`s are simply not clamping down on it during the game, the RFL are not clamping down on it after the game with regards to punishment awarded for this offence. I know Russell fumbled the ball, but if he had caught it cleanly, there would still have been contact to the face with the shoulder, there was no attempt to complete a legal tackle there, whether he caught the ball or not, Seems to me that its going to take a player being confined to a wheelchair to make the RLF. Referees and the clowns in charge of our refereeing do something about actions like this! I really hope that the reports of Mattys injuries are not accurate and he makes a swift recovery..

If you're going into the tackle with head and shoulders leading (as opposed to the upright body-to-body collision), you need to ensure the opposing players safety. There's even 5 foot of Rob Burrow to tackle below the head.

I don't think this was a shoulder charge, from the little I've seen of it. It seemed like a genuine tackle. But even so it was directed (rather than incidental) above the neck contact and that's foul play no matter what part of the body you use

I even think the shoulder charge should be allowed in or game as long as it's not a dangerous charge (ie. not to the head and not late) - there was nothing wrong with the old rule. So it's not like I want our game to go softer.


I hope Matty is okay!

Matty fumbled the ball from the kick and was falling back a little but reaching forward with his arms to try to gather the ball and Leuleui came in and hit him with his shoulder but I don't couldn't tell exactly where.
If it was shoulder to face then it should have been red - the only mitigating circumstances was that Russell was falling back.
I'd like to see the position of Leuleui's hands and arms when the contact was made.
If they were down by his side then it's a shoulder charge and he should get a long ban.
If they were trying to make a tackle then it's not and the right decision has been made.
What made it look very bad was the dramatic way Matty's head snapped back. That was truly awful.

Take care Matty. Get well soon.

A quite deliberate shoulder charge...Leuleuai dipped his shoulder and cleaned him out.

I've read that elsewhere - in which case red and a ban

Matthew Russell @mattyrussell3
Thanks for the messages, been quite lucky scans are all good neck and head.. Teeth knocked out n bad lip. Part and parcel of playing tho

one of the most up and coming fullbacks iv'e seen this season.....terrible whats happened to him..i hope he makes a speedy recovery ......(you get footballers rolling over in pain because they have been tripped up)... and this lad has received all these injury's for pittance against a footballers wages...get well soon matty lad!

Obviously, main thing is that Matty is ok and recovers quickly and completely.

Now, I actually felt that the tackle on Bridge was more worthy of a dismissal or sin-binning. It was an attack to the throat, there were no mitigating circumstances as there were in the Russell incident and could have had very nasty repurcussions.

Whatever your feeling about either incident, I'm getting sick of seeing proud, honest, gifted players leaving the pitch prone on stretchers and wondering if they'll be the same ever again. Injuries happen, we all know that, but the severity and frequency is increasing; whether that is down to bad luck, bad judgement or something more sinister I'm not sure.