In the first Pool D game in RWC19 in Japan between Australia and Fiji, the South Pacific islanders were leading Australia by 21-20 coming into the last quarter and were full value for their lead, playing with the sort of athletic verve and audacity you expect from the most expressive team in the world.

In the 60th minute, Botia almost took the head off Michael Hooper with a high tackle and got a yellow for his troubles. In the 10 minutes that followed Australia scored three tries and put the game beyond reach of the Fijians. Fifteen players good, 14 players bad. Never mind, we were sure Botia would learn from this mistake and wouldn’t cost his teammates a shot at history again.

Prior to this, Botia had received red cards for head-high dangerous tackles in 2015 against Bordeaux and 2017 against Brive and was suspended for several weeks at a time. In addition, he had a series of yellows also for dangerous tackles.

The fact is that players from the south sea islands have always tackled high and dangerously and this trend continues to this day. The stats back it up. You may say I am guilty of a gross generalisation, but I don’t think so. I wonder when it is going to be addressed, because it cannot be given any more latitude. If these players cannot control themselves on the pitch, they should not be allowed on it. There is a reason why World Rugby wants to stamp out these tackles and that will become apparent in 2022 when the class actions for early onset dementia come before the courts.

How do you get the best out of somebody like Botia? Give him licence, but always on the proviso that it has to be within the laws of the game.

Ronan O’Gara was interviewed by Joe Molloy on Off The Ball last week. Molloy’s interview was pretty direct and when pressed, O’Gara stated that Botia was the sort of player who “comes up with big shots — that’s his game and he got his timing wrong”, while stating that in Maxime Medard’s case “there was a little bit of a dip”. I have to confess I did not witness any dip. Both players maintained the same angle and posture from the moment Medard gained possession.

This was not one of those hundredths of a second moments when two athletes collide at a velocity where you have no control over your movement. Botia had more than enough time to size Medard up and hit him legally. It is, however, a problem I have observed with the tackle technique of players from the South Pacific.

They prefer to stand tall and/or lead with the shoulder. The tackle is often legal and very effective in terms of stopping the ball carrier, but there are times when it is too close to the neck or head. Instead of the Will Connors-type chop tackle where you literally slide in to the shoe laces, the contact seems to be much higher, up to and including the point of danger.

I can’t agree with O’Gara that his player got his timing wrong, because the play had nothing to do with the timing of the tackle. I would agree that he does go looking for the big shot. Five minutes earlier, from a five-metre scrum on the Toulouse line, Botia smashed Jerome Kaino with a shoulder to the head area. That was a red card well before his marching orders in the 27th minute.

Botia is known as the demolition man and there is an element of machismo in the way he tackles. Offensive defence is spectacular to witness, but unless Botia can control himself he is a danger to the game and of limited value to his team.

Later in the game Gregory Alldritt got smashed in the face. Pita Ahki was the offender in this instance and the act merited a red card. Was it just a coincidence that Ahki was the perpetrator?

These players are backs — what if the big boys started taking heads off? Will Skelton, who has played for Australia but is of Samoan stock, got a four-week suspension for a very dangerous head-high tackle on his now teammate Brice Dulin in a match against Racing 92 in January 2020. If someone of Skelton’s size is tackling players around the head it is only a matter of time before somebody dies. Joe Tekori, another huge man and a dangerous tackler who has previous, was also on the pitch last Saturday.

Of the 25 players sent off in Rugby World Cups since 1987, nine are south sea islanders. That is a disproportionate number given the size of their nations. If you look at the list of suspensions in the Heineken Cup over the last couple of seasons you will find a disproportionate number of south sea islanders in there (there are a large number of South Africans as well). But the crime on most occasions are head-high and dangerous tackles.

Offenders seem to reoffend on a continuous basis. Our own Bundee Aki was sent off for a dangerous head-high tackle on Ulupano Seuteni in the pool match against Samoa in the World Cup in Japan and just nine Test matches later, was sent off again in the England game for exactly the same offence, this time on Billy Vunipola.

Anyone who thinks it was a harsh red is missing the point. Aki’s technique and attitude should be such that he will never come remotely close to being sent off again for a high or dangerous tackle.

The player is still standing tall in the tackle far too often and he will get done again before his career is over. As a consequence he has missed nine weeks of the season because of his suspension and people are treating it as if he forgot to hand up his homework.

My personal experience of South Pacific players — Tongan, Samoan, Fijian or Polynesian — that I have come across either on or off the pitch has without exception been positive. The people love their rugby and they have rugby in their blood. However, last Saturday was yet another bad day on the rugby field, quite apart from the mesmeric dullness of the fare and the fact that the occasion was ruined as a spectacle. It was the foul play which really caught the eye.

What am I supposed to do? A few tut-tuts or an air of resignation that we all must do better to make the game safer? The evidence is indisputable and while all of these players are welcome to play their brand of rugby, they have to accept that there needs to be a change of culture when it comes to head-high tackling. Otherwise we will be in the courts for decades to come.