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Video - 'Reckless' tackle breaks Baker's jaw in two places
By Chris Jones
Perry Baker, the World’s outstanding sevens player, is to undergo surgery to repair a double fracture of his jaw following a tackle by Tonga’s Tana Fotofili who was only yellow carded during the HSBC World Rugby Sevens series in Hamilton.
Baker arrived back in the USA yesterday and immediately went to see a surgeon and is expected to miss the next two legs of the Series events in Sydney this weekend and Las Vegas next month where the USA are the defending champions. Mike Friday, the USA head coach, believes Baker, who has been voted World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year for the last two years, could be back for the Hong Kong Sevens which start on April 5.
The USA reached the final of the Hamilton leg despite being robbed of one of their most potent weapons and were beaten by Fiji who have joined the Eagles at the top of the table heading to Sydney. Both teams have 57 points with New Zealand three behind.
Baker passed a head injury assessment after the heavy hit in Hamilton but x-rays revealed the broken jaw forcing him to immediately fly home for treatment. The incident happened in the opening pool game and the referee controversially only handed out a yellow card to the Tonga player. The incident will only add to the debate over protection for players in both sevens and the 15 man game.
Friday insists the USA will not rush Baker back and said: “It was unfortunate for Perry and it was a tough tackle, legal but maybe reckless and the outcome is that Perry’s jaw was fractured in two places so he has returned home and will have surgery. We will then look at his recovery and there is an outside chance he could be ready for Hong Kong but we won’t push it.
“We will take time, let him get fit and then be able to unleash him on the World circuit very soon.”
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Latest Comments
The manner of all these comments is that it doesn’t matter who plays No10 for the All Blacks, apparently they are all rubbish!
Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop obsessing over every tiny error made from an overscrutinised position. DMac was good this year for the most part, as was Beauden Barrett. Mo’unga was good last year and would be an asset in the group if he did come back. I don’t see it as an area of concern.
The main concern in 2025 is finding another world class lock and loose forward, followed by some scrutiny over the midfield combination in my view.
Go to commentsI was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
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