PHOTOSPORT

Sonny Bill Williams lines up Anthony Watson before his red card in last year's test against the Lions in Wellington.

OPINION: All Blacks management and New Zealand Rugby should be ashamed of their reaction to the horrendous injury to France's Remy Grosso. Only Ian Foster came close to saying that this sort of thing cannot carry on. The rest either said nothing or called it an accident in a fluid game.

The only thing that is now fluid is the head of the French wing. Grosso's sinuses are all over the place after he suffered a double fracture. The injuries came from the double impact of Sam Cane's arm and Ofa Tu'ungafasi's shoulder. The long-term consequences could be devastating for the Frenchman. Surely, surely, surely, the All Blacks will finally realise that they cannot keep on tackling as they do.

You are unlikely to have heard of Kerry Goulet. But he is a former ice-hockey player from Canada who is in New Zealand to try to put an end to the carnage that happened last Saturday.

MARK KOLBE/GETTY IMAGES

Ireland wing Keith Earls leaves the field after a head knock against the Wallabies in Brisbane.

Goulet suffered his own problems after playing the sport that he loved. In 1988 he became confused. Goulet was depressed. He had suicidal thoughts. He dreamed about people dying. He dreamed about people killing themselves. Goulet went back to playing hockey, but can't remember a whole month from that year.

READ MORE:
* Warning for Tu'ungafasi
* All Blacks shown no lenience
* Grosso cleared to fly

A slapshot took several teeth out and he had 60 stitches. Another nearly removed his eye. He had another 35 stitches. He has 350 scars. He had headaches. He took some pills. "You're a gladiator, son." You take the needle. The pain ebbs for now.

PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES

Medics attend to Sam Cane after a head clash with Ofa Tu'ungafasi in the first test against France.

Nick Boynton was an NHL player until 2011. This is what Boynton has written on the website 'Stopconcussions', the nonforprofit organisation that Goulet founded with another former player, Keith Primeau.

"I've thought about death a lot over the past few years.

"About dying. And what it might be like if I wasn't around.

I've struggled a ton since I retired from hockey in 2011, and I've faced a bunch of different personal demons. But recently I've been unable to shake thoughts of….

"Steve Montador.

"Wade Belak.

"Derek Boogaard.

"Rick Rypien.

"I knew those guys. They were real people to me.

"They played the same game I did, and when it was all said and done … they were really just suffering, man. They struggled with depression and anxiety and substance abuse and just … pain. All of the things I've been dealing with. They went through some of the exact same stuff.

"And now … I talk about them in the past tense. How they were my friends. And how they used to be my brothers.

They're just … gone."

Montador, Belak, Boogaard and Rypien are former players who were killed by ice hockey. They suffered multiple concussions. The pain in the head kept on every day. 

It was the sort of pain that led former NFL player Mike Webster to taser his leg, just so that he hurt somewhere else. Eventually they couldn't take any more. And so they committed suicide or took too many pills or found another way out. Any door would do.

When I show Goulet the double tackle on Grosso he can hardly bear to watch. "Holy mackerel," he says. "I feel the pain."

Then I tell Goulet the reaction of the three doctors in the UK who counsel me on concussion. Two of them worked for World Rugby before resigning in disgust. The third has worked with Irish rugby. Between them they have specialist skills in neurology, concussion and facial surgery. One is a former international.

Barry O'Driscoll said: "He led, meant to hit and did hit with shoulder with right arm an appendage (therefore foul tackle). Grosso was slightly low but no sudden drop in height and tackler was looking at him. Ref 3 yards away with full view. There is a reason why this situation is now a red card - it leads to multiple skull and facial fractures."

Willie Stewart said: "Shambles. Player welfare (is) nobody at World Rugby priority."

Cliff Beirne said: "More games now being ruined by dreadful inconsistent adjudicating and consequent endangerment of player welfare. No wonder in NZ there are now multiple issues re head injuries to players.

"APPLY THE RULES.

"The refs and officials bottling it. Blood curdling. Another sordid episode not dealt with appropriately. No room in any sport for this. Grosso should sue for assault, pain, suffering and loss of earnings."

Ice hockey is already dealing with the lawyers. Paul Edelstein, a personal-injury attorney who won a $22 million lawsuit against the State of New York in 2017, said: "If at some point the safety concern supersedes the financial one, then they'll do something about it.

"You can wait for a guy like me to come around. Or you can head it off earlier at a fraction of the cost. Thirty years ago there were commercials marketing smoking as good for you. Now you'd be outraged, right? This is simply a battle between financial interests and moral ones. Fifteen, 20 years from now, we're going to ask, 'How did we let this happen'?"

So how did we let this happen? How can Steve Hansen say after the All Blacks mugged Ireland in Dublin in 2016: "Do you want me to tell you we're a dirty side or something?"

How can he call out Warren Gatland and say he should know the New Zealand psyche is about playing hard and fair? How can he say of Owen Franks and Joe Moody that they were a bit rusty in their techniques and should give themselves "a wee uppercut"?

How can he say of the SBW assault on Anthony Watson that the card could have been yellow or red and if it's red you just have to live with it? How can he say after his forwards mugged Argentina last year, with captain Read yellow carded for a high shot and Tomas Cubelli the victim of a double tackle horrendously similar to Grosso's, that his team showed a real physicality which was great? How can he call the Grosso tackle accidental?

Accidents don't keep repeating themselves. These reactions upset Goulet. He says the disregard of upper management means that the doctors get fed up and frustrated and "we eliminate them from the game. We can't have that happen."

But it is happening. The medics look on and see Sam Cane stay on the pitch for six minutes and 30 seconds before being removed for a head clash. This is serial behaviour from the All Blacks. They see Keith Earls stay on for Ireland against Australia for three minutes and 30 seconds after a sickening blow. And astonishingly he was named in this week's team.

This madness cannot go on and Goulet believes the only people who can make the difference is players. His forum is about getting players to speak to players. New Zealand needs the same. It needs Richie to tell Sam he can't keep tackling like that. Goulet ended up in a "psych ward". He doesn't want the same to happen to a generation of All Blacks. He doesn't want it to happen to their kids.

Goulet says: "We have to change the way we think about the games we play. The brain protects the brain. And we have to protect our child's brains. Don't just throw your kid on the field and let the coach put him at risk. Sport is not a babysitting service."

As parents we also have to take responsibility. As a coach Hansen must take his share of responsibility, too. For two years the All Blacks, often excused by the puny words of their coach, have been putting themselves and others at risk. It has to stop.

 - Stuff