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Video - 'Reckless' tackle breaks Baker's jaw in two places

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.

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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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J
JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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