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Watch: Semi Radradra runs in a try despite doing his hamstring

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Semi Radrada had no hesitation in putting Bristol before his own well-being on Friday night, the Fijian international managing to run in a European Challenge Cup try despite pulling his hamstring when approaching the 22-metre line at Ashton Gate.

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The Bears were trailing 13-17 in the 38th minute of the round-of-16 match at home to Clermont when James Williams embarked on a mazy run from inside his own half that bamboozled the visiting French cover.

On drawing the final defender, he popped an inside pass to the supporting Radrada and that put the Fijian in the clear. However, within a couple of strides of taking the ball, Radradra was seen wincing and slowing, but he carried on through the pain barrier to make it over the line despite getting tackled to score the try by the posts that was converted for a short-lived 20-17 advantage.

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RugbyPass Originals: The Bear Pit

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Radradra was immediately replaced by Ioan Lloyd and there will now be fears that this latest injury could mean that the powerhouse midfielder has made his last appearance for Bristol. Beaten last weekend at Leicester, the Bears are unlikely to reach the Gallagher Premiership playoffs which means they have just three regular-season games remaining before Radradra’s end-of-season switch to Lyon in the Top 14.

Sale are due in Bristol on April 14, followed by an April 22 trip to Exeter and a May 6 home finale versus Gloucester. Director of rugby Pat Lam suggested to local media in the aftermath of the Clermont defeat that it was too soon for a proper assessment of the damage sustained by Radradra.

“It’s a hamstring. Fair play to him, he did it about 30 metres out and he could have stopped but he still worked his way to the try line to get the points. It’s a big loss losing Semi. He has been in very good form but we will hopefully see him before the end of the season.”

Despite some time-consuming injuries along the way, including a serious knee operation that left him waiting until December to get this season started, the 30-year-old has worn the Bristol shirt on 52 occasions, scoring a tally of 16 tries that Lam explained last month to RugbyPass would have been more but for his generosity when it came to finishing off guaranteed scores.

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“The big thing for Semi is his legacy is already locked in stone here in what he has done in the environment, the person he is, the standards that he set, the unselfish stuff he does,” said Lam at the time. “Some of the biggest things? You just have to look at how many tries he has gifted to other players, just handed a player the ball.

“That sums up who he is. He is very selfless and he spends a lot of time with players, young players. He is always thinking about how he makes people around him better, whether that is on or off the field. That is his legacy and that is something we have been privileged to experience. It is always going to be a privilege that Semi Radradra is always going to be a Bristol Bear.

“He has had a big impact here and the resilience and the toughness of the guy – the medics will tell you during the injuries that he had, a lot of players would not have made it because but because of who he is and his professionalism, that is why he has made it back.”

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J
JW 31 minutes ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

Very good, now we are getting somewhere (though you still didn't answer the question but as you're a South African I think we can all assume what the answer would be if you did lol)! Now let me ask you another question, and once you've answered that to yourself, you can ask yourself a followup question, to witch I'm intrigued to know the answer.


Well maybe more than a couple of questions, just to be clear. What exactly did this penalty stop you from doing the the first time that you want to try again? What was this offence that stopped you doing it? Then ask yourself how often would this occur in the game. Now, thinking about the regularity of it and compare it to how it was/would be used throughout the rest of the game (in cases other than the example you gave/didn't give for some unknown reason).


What sort of balance did you find?


Now, we don't want to complicate things further by bringing into the discussion points Bull raised like 'entirety' or 'replaced with a ruck', so instead I'll agree that if we use this article as a trigger to expanding our opinions/thoughts, why not allow a scrum to be reset if that is what they(you) want? Stopping the clock for it greatly removes the need to stop 5 minutes of scrum feeds happening. Fixing the law interpretations (not incorrectly rewarding the dominant team) and reducing the amount of offences that result in a penalty would greatly reduce the amount of repeat scrums in the first place. And now that refs a card happy, when a penalty offence is committed it's going to be far more likely it results in the loss of a player, then the loss of scrums completely and instead having a 15 on 13 advantage for the scrum dominant team to then run their opposition ragged. So why not take the scrum again (maybe you've already asked yourself that question by now)?


It will kind be like a Power Play in Hockey. Your outlook here is kind of going to depend on your understanding of what removing repeat scrums was put in place for, but I'm happy the need for it is gone in a new world order. As I've said on every discussion on this topic, scrums are great, it is just what they result in that hasn't been. Remove the real problem and scrum all you like. The All Blacks will love zapping that energy out of teams.

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