16 JOHNNY FA’AULI MAKES A BAD CALL
High tackles, once the scourge of the game, greatly reduced in 2017 and again in 2018.
Players have genuinely tried to cut them out – to get lower and protect the tackled player’s head.
So when Chiefs midfielder Johnny Fa’auli was wild and reckless 63 minutes into the encounter against the Hurricanes, there was considerable outrage.
His tackle on Wes Goosen was the worst of everything. It was high, it was deliberate, it was reckless and it was nasty. Goosen was knocked out and shaken by the impact and the Hurricanes were so outraged they tweeted from their ocial account: “What a shocker... player with a bad history of that crap.”
They later deleted but point was made. Fa’auli was suspended for six weeks.