Cudmore tells North: See brain specialist
“Teams beat up on players. In the street you would say it was thuggery”
Jamie Cudmore, one of the toughest players the game has known, used to own a bar in Clermont where the wine was labelled Sin Bin. Appropriate enough, you might think, for a giant lock who has just hung up his boots after a career amassing 30 yellow cards and three red ones.
But Canadian Cudmore, whose 6ft 5in, 18 st 8lb frame has been a menacing feature of Clermont’s scrum for a decade, now admits to having been badly scared in a concussion incident.
Not by any opponent with designs on rearranging his form and features, but by the knowledge that one more blow on the head might have killed him.
And that is why he asked the public prosecutor in Clermont last week to judge whether the club he served for so long ended up endangering his health. Cudmore now tells The Rugby
Paper of the mental agonies that finally drove him to this decision and of the warnings he delivered in a recent phone call to Wales and Northampton winger George North.
He said: “George had suffered some concussion and there was a big controversy about whether he should have been allowed to play on.
“I told him of my experience and that frightened him a little. I told him to get himself seen by a few different brain specialists and how important that was, not only for his career, but for his life afterwards.”
North, who took part in the Lions’ victory over Crusaders yesterday, was knocked unconscious while playing for Northampton against Leicester last December. He was allowed to resume.
A move that led World Rugby to demand an explanation from the Rugby Union as to why Northampton had not been sanctioned.
The incident evoked painful memories for Cudmore of what happened to him in the semifinal and final of the Champions Cup two years ago.
Especially the semi-final against Saracens, the game at the heart of his litigation with Clermont. “I can still see Billy Vunipola leaping into a ruck with me coming at some pace the other way.
“It was a complete accident, but I was so dazed I had to come off. I can still hear the doc telling me after a test: ‘No, that’s it, you’re done. No way back for you’.
“I was actually taking my boots off when our other lock Sebastien Vahaamahina had to come off injured. That’s when they asked me if I could go back on and, like all players would have done, I said ‘Yes’.”
How that episode was handled will be examined by a medical expert appointed by the prosecutor to read evidence from club and player. Cudmore says he expects a conclusion by September.
He had another test for concussion after being tackled by Chris Masoe in the final against Toulon and a later collision with Juan Smith led not only to immediate vomiting, but a summer of anguish.
“I had three very difficult months,” he said. “I was irritable at home, shouting at my children and couldn’t bear looking at the light or listening to music.”
Two neurologists at the University of Clermont helped his recovery and are now prominent from their practice in Geneva in the Rugby Safety Network, an association founded by Cudmore and wife Jennifer to educate young players in order to minimise the dangers they face.
He added: “The experts have told me a second concussion can kill you. From what I have seen, there has been more progress in the Premiership than the Top 14.
“It has something to do with the way the game is played, too. It is a lot cleaner now than when I started in France. Then, eyegouging, knees in the back, biting and the fish hook (fingers pulling the mouth apart) were fairly common.
“But also there is the problem of teams like Toulon, Montpellier and Racing trying to beat up on players with sheer weight and power. If you saw it in the street, you would say it was thuggery.”
Cudmore’s action in pursuing newly-crowned European champions Clermont is fuelled by anger, too, after their response to a letter he wrote detailing his concerns.
He said: “Two doctors told me I was lying and the coach and general manager called me a traitor to the club.
“Everyone took a turn tearing a strip off me. I told them I just needed a reassurance that it would not happen again.
“All I got from them was anger and disbelief that I would even have the gall to bring something like that up. Especially in the form of a letter. That is the way they treated me after I had put my body on the line for them for 11 years.”
Cudmore moved on to Oyonnax, with whom he has won promotion to the Top 14, on a contract that guaranteed him a coaching role this season.
Clermont reject his accusations and insist they have nothing to hide. Should make for a couple of interesting confrontations in the months ahead when they play Oyonnax.