No Place For Crying Wolf In Rugby
Published on HivePostify by @cryptoandcoffee · Mon Sep 07 2026
[source](https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/rtmc-warns-traffic-officers-against-accepting-bribes)
During the third match in the Greatest Rivalry test series between South Africa and New Zealand we saw something unacceptable with an All Black player Cam Roigard feigning an injury. Everyone watching on television and on the ground knew this with the 3rd official not reading the situation and was deceived by these antics. The officials are playing into the players hands and he will continue to deceive the officials.
Stuart Hogg the Scottish fullback did this years ago and was told in no uncertain terms by the referee that rugby is not football and he needs to watch himself. How embarrassing for the player and quite right he was told directly that those antics would not be accepted.
My view on this is an automatic yellow card or possible red for the player feigning injury who happens to have a record of doing this as this was his second time. Players will build up a reputation with other players and officials and reckon he is already on their radar now. Players like Roigard are great players with obvious talent and do not need to go down to these cheating methods. Nick White the Australian scrum half did something similar and has never been allowed to forget about that incident.
This is an insult to the sport which is an aggressive brutal sport, an insult to his own players and to the officials. There is no room for this in a sport where people have been killed and where health and player safety is taken seriously. During the match one player broke his jaw and another dislocated their shoulder and you could see this was genuine and no feigning because it was serious. What happens if Roigard is one day seriously injured and no one takes that seriously because he has made a name for himself?
This player climbed on the back of the SA player and was shrugged off landing softly on his shoulders and was not an aggressive throw. You could hurt yourself more falling out your bed yet the player lay still on the ground as if he had a serious injury which he obviously did not. This type of antic upsets players more than fans as we know if the injury is worthy or not and can tell by the players actions. Not moving on the ground holding his head you would automatically think something serious happened when nothing actually happened.
The same player in a game last season feigned injury only to miraculously recover within seconds after being awarded the penalty and start running with the ball showing there was no injury at all. The commentators at the time said this was wrong and showed what type of character this player is. Cheating to gain an advantage is not how we play sport especially through feigning an injury to gain a penalty. This is not the player ethics we know and love and players will be targeted for these types of antics which will result in serious injuries.
We see this type of milking the moment in football so much so that when someone is seriously injured no one is sure or not. We see footballers waiting, lying on the ground acting feigning injury hoping to hear the whistle and is refreshing of late when the referee ignores the player. The only downside if the player holds his head the game has to be stopped even if the injury was nowhere near the head. This again should be an automatic yellow or red depending on the history of that player if the video footage shows no evidence of contact.
Posted Using [INLEO](https://inleo.io/@cryptoandcoffee/no-place-for-crying-wolf-in-rugby-2c5)
Tags: #hive-115814#rugby#cheating#injuries#contactsports#decieving#officials#pob#waiv#vyb