Melbourne Rebels star James O'Connor was injured early on in the 36-32 loss to the Blues at Eden Park. It happened under a pile of bodies at a ruck, and while he tried to stay on the field, rampaging Rene Ranger picked him out, flattening the 22-year-old. 

The Rebels conceded five tries in the first half before coming back to score three of their own in the second, earning two losing bonus points as a result. The injury toll was significant though as they lost key man O'Connor midway through the first half.

O'Connor carried a high ball into a ruck and appeared to have his sternum crushed under the weight. He courageously tried to play on, but clearly was in pain and avoided the ball, and contact, over the next few minutes when possible. 

As you'll see though, he wasn't able to avoid hard running Rene Ranger as he broke through a gap and lined up young Wallaby O'Connor, who fronted up to the tackle but got sent flying backwards.

It was brutal to watch, as it happened just four minutes after the initial injury.

O'Connor immediately left the field and was sent to hospital, where scans revealed that there was no fracture but he will be likely to miss a few weeks with a collarbone injury, damaging his left sternoclavicular joint.

After the game he tweeted: "Painful stuff! popped my sternum out on that kick receipt then didn't help when I got back up & had ranger with a 40m run up coming at me.."

The good news for Wallaby fans in that it will be a temporary break, and providing he stays out of the path of big forwards and people like Ranger, he should be fit for the Lions tour next month.

His replacement, Angus Robers, dislocated his shoulder eight minutes later.

Posted at 7:16 am | 7 comments

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Ulster have reached the RaboDirect Pro12 final, beating Scarlets 28-17 at Ravenhill last night. It was an eventful, amusing game for winger Andrew Trimble, who was yellow carded for fighting in the first half, and later provided some laughs with a comical trip.

After some early penalty kick exchanges, the first try came on 25 minutes as British & Irish Lions tourists Tommy Bowe and George North went one on one, with the senior Bowe getting the better of the young star, rounding him for a well taken try.

Both sides were down to 14 men following a scuffle between backs Liam Williams and Andrew Trimble, which seemed to kick off after a push and shove at the bottom of ruck.

Robbie Diack later crossed for a try and at halftime the hosts led 18-3, before Tom Court crossed in the second. Scarlets' Gareth Davies scored what was probably the try of the match as he weaved his way past defenders, and later Sione Timani also scored, but it wasn't enough for the visitors.

Man of the Match Rory Best spoke of how determined Ulster are to win a trophy this season.

"Ultimately this is where we want to be. We want to win silverware this year and this is our last crack at it now. This team, we felt at the start of the season, was good enough to win something — we wanted to win everything, but this is our thing now and we're delighted to be in the final."

The Pro12 Final takes place on May 25th in Dublin, where Ulster will face either Leinster or Glasgow.

View a highlights wrap of the match | View the amusing toe stub face plant by Trimble

Note: All clips are official Pro12 highlights, so there is no commentary unfortunately

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Posted at 1:42 pm | 10 comments

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Double dose of Plays of the Week for you today, looking back on Rounds 11 and 12 of Super Rugby, thanks to Rugby HQ. Above you can see the latest round (last weekend's, Round 12), and on page two of this post, the Plays of the week for the previous weekend, Round 11.

If you're in Australia, you can watch Plays live on Thursday nights from 8:30pm on Fox Sports 1

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Posted at 9:38 am | 4 comments

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This weekend the London Sevens takes place at Twickenham after another fascinating round in Glasgow a week ago. Here is a quick look at a big tackle that took place in the Samoa vs Australia game, as Lolo Lui demolished James Stannard.

South Africa won the tournament after beating New Zealand in the final, while Samoa had a series leg that they would rather forget, losing to Canada, narrowly beating Russia and then losing the Bowl semi final to Australia.

In that game there was this stand out moment for the Samoans however, as Lui made a sensational hit, knocking the wind out of Stannard to the point that he had to leave the field.

Samoa are fourth in the standings going into the final leg of the world series, in London. While New Zealand have won this year's series, South Africa and Fiji will be gunning for second place.

Hosts England are in eighth place, but will no doubt be looking for a good showing in front of their home crowd. We'll have official highlights from the IRB as they happen throughout the weekend.

Time: 1:14
Credit: Thanks to the IRB

Posted at 10:00 am | 21 comments

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Jean De Villiers scored twice as the Stormers launched a comeback against the Blues, but ultimately failed to take their chances, going down 18-17 in an exciting game in Auckland. De Villiers led from the front, making this big charge in the first half.

Flyhalf Chris Noakes kicked six penalties as the Blues held off the visiting Stormers, who fought back from being 15-3 down in the second half thanks in part to their skipper.

De Villiers sparked the comeback with two tries, and with time up and the full time siren having sounded, they continued to fight for the win. Multiple phases of attack had the Blues on the rack in what was an exciting finish, but Elton Jantjies missed a rushed drop goal attempt under pressure.

We seem to have had a bit of a theme on RD this week, following earlier clips of Jonny Wilkinson getting smashed out the way, and a University student being bounced for going too high. This clip fits into that category, and actually coincides nicely with one of our new T-shirts, which serves as a handy reminder of what to do. You can pick one up in the Rugbydump Store. To his credit, Noakes, who is one of the smaller players around, took it well, hopping back up and getting on with things.

The Stormers face the Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday in what is a must win game for them. EXTRA: You can view extended highlights of the Blues vs Stormers match here

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Posted at 8:46 am | 9 comments

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We've just launched some awesome new shirts, hoodies, and coffee mugs in our store. We'd love to see you in them, so today you've got the opportunity to win one of our brand new Lions 2013 shirts!

To enter, simply do the following:

1. Visit the RD store to see what one of our new shirts says you should do to Keep Calm.
2. Follow and Tweet @Rugbydump with: 'I've just entered to win a Lions 2013 shirt! http://bit.ly/Lions2013Giveaway' and include the answer to the above question as a hashtag (as one word)

OR:
Emailing us with a photo of you in a RD shirt you already have will also count as an entry.

[If you're not on Twitter but would like to enter, you can leave a comment below (only registered users), telling us which new shirt is your favourite]

While you're entering, have a browse around and see if there's something you like that can form as an entry for the next giveaway we run. We've got T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and even iPhone cases.

Closing date for entries: 15 May 2013. Good luck! The competition is now closed. Thanks for entering!

Posted at 12:24 pm | 22 comments

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After seeing what Tongan born Agen giant Opeti Fonua did to Jonny Wilkinson at the weekend, a follower on Twitter reminded us that a few years ago he did something similar to former All Black Chris Masoe. For some reason we didn't post that on the site at the time, so here it is.

As with his recent exploits, Fonua demonstrated that - despite him looking a bit slimmer in this clip - no matter who you are, you will often be shown up if you go too high on a big man.

Masoe is a player of serious pedigree and considerable bulk, but he got this one wrong, allowing the Tongan Tank to smash him out the road.

Posted at 6:13 pm | 7 comments

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