Court ruling on schoolboy injury
In 2005 Ryand Hattingh was severely injured in a schools rugby match in the Western Cape. The matter ended in a court decision on 4 May 2011 which found in favour of the injured player in the civil claim.
That means that it also found against the player who caused the injury, which could result in a vast expense for opposing player.
The two players concerned were both hookers in the match between Labori of Paarl and Stellenbosch High – Hattingh of Labori and Alex Roux of Stellenbosch. Hattingh injured his neck in the match and still, six years later, suffers the effects of the injury which he claimed was a deliberate action by Roux, a deliberate tactic, coded jackknife, which was found to be ‘illegal and dangerous’. (It consisted of a hooker and a prop putting their heads into the same front-row gap to exert increased pressure on an opponent, in this case the hooker, in the front row.)
Balie Swart and Matthew Proudfoot, both international front-row players who are now coaches, were expert witnesses in the case.
Judge Burton Fourie heard the case in the Western Cape High Court said in his ruling: “This conduct by Alex was not only forbidden by the laws of the game, but constituted such a serious transgression, not normally associated with the game of rugby, that it would not reasonably have been expected to occur in a rugby game.”
The judge went on to say that in rugby, a high-speed contact sport, players could expect to be injured but this did not mean that players could deliberately injure other players.
“The injured player should not, by virtue of the game, be regarded as having consented to the risk of being injured as a result of serious aggressions which are not normally associated with the game of rugby.”
The judge awarded damages to Hattingh and his father as well as the costs of their counsel and expert witnesses. The damages Roux’s father is liable for have not yet been determined but could run into millions.
Afterwards, Ryand Hattingh said: “At the moment I am speechless but I am just glad that it’s over because it’s been six years since it happened.”
His attorney, Allan Jones, said that the judgement “established the principle that when a player does something outside of the laws of the game it is considered to be an offence and unlawful”.
There are aspects of rugby football that are violent and dangerous but part of the laws of the game that the player of his own free will contracts to play. They are often acts, such as tackling, that would be considered assault if they happened in the street. But the player does not contract to suffer from actions outside of the law. Such an act outside of the law – a kick, a punch or in this case illegal scrumming – is then subject to the laws of the land.
* It is not new. In one case in England in 1996 the court found the referee, Michael Nolan, guilty of negligence when 17-year-old Ben Smoldon was paralysed in a collapsed scrum. Smoldan sued the referee for £1. Eight years later the court awarded Smoldon £1,9-million.
