Renaldo Bothma posts 'life-changing' croc-roll injury that ended his career

In response to the controversy around the red card issued during Scotland’s 32-15 loss to South Africa at Murrayfield on Sunday, former Namibian international Renaldo Bothma has posted a video of his own career-ending injury to emphasize the dangers of the "croc-roll" tackle technique.
Scotland were trailing 5-0 after Makazole Mapimpi’s opening try and then suffered a major setback in the 11th minute when lock Scott Cummings was yellow-carded for a croc-roll tackle on South Africa’s Franco Mostert at a ruck.
Working in tandem with flanker Rory Darge in the clearout, Cummings appeared surprised when television match official Ian Tempest suggested that on-field referee Christophe Ridley review the tackle, resulting in the second-row's yellow card.
A few minutes later and the decision was upgraded to a red card following a review by Tual Trainini - the foul play review official. The upgrade left Scotland with 14 players for 20 minutes and stirred a vocal reaction from the Murrayfield crowd, as many believed Cummings' actions were not malicious.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend wasn't pleased, suggesting the incident had mitigating circumstances. “Scott was clearing contact, and the scrum-half’s sudden movement forced him off balance, which led to his contact with the jackalling player’s leg,” Townsend explained. “But given the dynamic speed of the game, I felt a red card was harsh.”
Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus expressed partial agreement, though he voiced frustration at his team’s inability to capitalize more fully on Scotland’s temporary reduction to 14 men.
Following the match, Bothma took to social media to share his perspective on the dangers of the croc-roll. Accompanying a video of his own injury, which resulted in four surgeries, permanent nerve damage, and the end of his playing career, Bothma wrote: "Seeing lots of comments on the red card, so here’s my perspective: a croc roll ended my career, paralyzed my foot, led to 4 surgeries, and brought lifelong mental challenges. Croc rolls aren’t just dangerous—they’re life-changing. Player safety has to come first."
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Soccer on a rugby forum…
“Experience is strongly correlated with age, at least among the managers that I named”…
Slot and Arteta are among the youngest you named. They have the least experience as a manager (6 years each). Espírito Santo and Pep are the oldest and have the most (12 years + each). Pep is pushing 17 years experience, all at elite level. There are plenty around his age that won’t have the same level of experience. Plenty.
The younger breed you mentioned (Arteta in particular) may not coach at elite level beyond the next few years if they continue to not win trophies. Age and experience is not always a nice, steady gradient.
The only trend in English soccer is that managers don’t stay on as long with the same club. Due to the nature of the game and the assumed, immediate performance bounce of replacing them at the first sign of trouble. Knee-jerk style. Test rugby has no clear pattern of that.
Why would you dismiss a paradox? Contradictions are often revealing. Or is that too incoherent?
Go to commentsYou can’t compare the “quality”of competitions till they play against each other … what we do know is that nz teams filled with ABs and ABs can go at it with anyone in the world and these other teams and players are competing so would say the quality is high wouldn’t you? How are you determining that URC or top 14 is higher quality than Super I’m guessing you mean in the quality of players and execution ? Are you just assuming that it is because…. I would say it’s much of a muchness and the only indicator for that is international rugby and that is hella even
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