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HSBC Lions Weekly - Sydney

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Sam Tuitupou's massive crash tackle on Gareth Maule

Sale Sharks overpowered Scarlets 36-17 in their LV Cup clash in Salford on Saturday. Danny Cipriani scored 21 points, including a try, four penalties, and two conversions, but the hit of the match came from crowd favourite Sam Tuitupou.

Despite starting slowly, Sale moved to the top of Pool 2 following the bonus point win that came about through tries to Richie Vernon, Charlie Amesbury, Charlie Ingall, and Cipriani.

"We made a couple of mistakes in the first 10 or 15 minutes and we paid dearly for it. We had to get four tries to get any chance of progressing but now we know if we go to Wasps and win we've got a great chance of progressing," said director of rugby Steve Diamond.

Scarlets had led 14-3 after a two early tries, but Sale pulled things back and in the second half with the scoreline looking comfortable, they snuffed out any hopes of the visitors adding to their total.

Turnover ball was swung wide as an overlap looked on, but the floated pass from flyhalf Owen Williams left centre Gareth Maule vulnerable, as the former All Black lined him up and smashed him. Maule took it well, despite it being one of the more spectacular hits of the season so far.

Posted at 11:42 am | 21 comments

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Posted in Big Hits & Dirty Play

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Viewing 21 comments

Joe January 27, 2013 10:19 pm

What a terrible hospital pass!! If I was Gareth Maule I wouldn't be talking to Owen Williams for a long time!

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stroudos January 28, 2013 11:24 am

Agreed! Although it looked like a reasonable pass when the ball left Williams's hands! Well read by Tuitupou.

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Philly January 28, 2013 2:19 am

Beautiful hit. Beautiful clean out. So what was the penalty for?

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stroudos January 28, 2013 11:21 am

Definitely nothing to do with the tackle. Sounds like the ref called "in at the side", but I don't think any of the Sale players are guilty of that. Maybe the ref thought Tuitupou was trying to rejoin the ruck from the wrong side after driving through (0:25), which is obviously not the case. Could be bloke in headband nearest to us just after that?

Bullshit call as far as I can see and an unfortunate result for Sale after a great tackle and good breakdown work.

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Guy January 28, 2013 3:20 pm

Can't hear what the ref says. The drive is excellent but after he comes out at the other end he is mometarily 'of his feet'. Maybe that's why he called the penalty. Looks harsh but might be correct.

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kadova January 28, 2013 9:59 pm

I think the referee said "offside" for the players coming in from the side of the ruck.

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stroudos January 28, 2013 11:20 pm

But I've watched it a few times now and can't see any Sale players coming in from the side. Quality clearout by Tuitupou too.

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DrG January 28, 2013 4:07 am

It actually wasn't as "car accident-y" as others, even though it was sort of just as big...

I mean, if you take the famous Houggard-Lima, um, Rodgers-Lewsey etc there is some real whiplash looking snaps from the player being tackled, but this tackle even though it looked just as big, didn't have the same whiplash snapping motion. Almost like Maule's momentum was not going forward so much or something..

Brilliant tackle though.

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stroudos January 28, 2013 11:16 am

Quite sensible by Maule I think. Looks like he saw the big man flying in, realised he was about to be smashed and, rather than resist and get hurt, just absorbed the hit and started thinking of ways to keep the ball alive - slightly inaccurate with the offload but a decent effort considering...

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No8 January 28, 2013 10:37 am

Cipriani kicked a try? I'd love to see that...

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alasdairduncan3 January 28, 2013 5:23 pm

The description only adds up to 19 points too...

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Rugbydump January 29, 2013 5:17 pm

Well spotted. Throw an extra conversion in there

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stroudos January 28, 2013 11:14 am

Bosh. Tremendous tackle.

Commentator put it pretty well - "sliced in half".

Even more impressive is how Tuitupou's straight back on his feet to tackle the next man - in the words of Dave Grohl "Done and I'm onto the next one!"

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mcivord January 28, 2013 2:22 pm

There was a roar from the crowd and given it was an LV game there was a large screen erected next to the south stand which allowed us to watch it again and again!!

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Guy January 28, 2013 3:22 pm

Ecellent tackle! It's not that the pass is so bad as much as Tuitupou reading the play very well.

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jadawin January 28, 2013 6:47 pm

hospital pass, nothing else...

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Keenan7 January 28, 2013 7:28 pm

Maybe Gareth owes Owen money.....hes got too...

youve got to applaud him for getting right back up after he was smashed

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HeavyHooker January 29, 2013 2:48 am

After Tuitupou does the clear out he pivots around the ruck with his hand on one of the players and I think that is why the ref blew the whistle, even though he did not commit into the ruck at that time. A bit quick on the whistle on the part of the ref. I would love to use this hit and recovery as a "how to" for my junior club; that was textbook - read, wrap, hit, up, recover and hit again.

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browner February 01, 2013 5:10 pm

Agree ............ & the icing on the cake was the instigation of a counter ruck 100% superb play ....."loud applause from me"

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browner February 01, 2013 5:37 pm

Oh........ & the correct Penalty decision would have been AGAINST red3 for lying over the ball preventing Sales valid counter ruck from gaining possession.

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Fin February 13, 2013 8:44 pm

The penalty was correct - ST clears out a Scarlets player legally, but then, from a completely offside position, plays another Scarlets player who is standing in the scrum-half position. He is not allowed to do this - he should have retreated to his own side straight away.

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