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So you think South Africans are rugby's biggest thugs? Well, think again...

By Online Editors
(Photo by Duif du Toit/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

As that well-worn maxim goes: There are three kinds of lies – lies, damned lies, and statistics. However, statistics are also a very handy tool to separate fact from fiction and rugby365.com have used numbers to try and identify who rugby’s biggest ‘thugs’ really are.

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South Africans have a generally bad reputation (and at times some players are and were rather brutal), but a close look at red and yellow card statistics leaves you realising that perception is perhaps flawed.

Let’s take the legend that is Bakkies Botha. A quick google search for ‘biggest thugs’ will have him listed in the top three with an array of accompanying videos to suggest that he is the dirtiest player ever to set foot on the field. However, that is a classic case of ‘perception’ being flawed.

Video Spacer

RugbyPass takes a trek through South African rugby in Jim Hamilton’s Rugby Explorer

Video Spacer

RugbyPass takes a trek through South African rugby in Jim Hamilton’s Rugby Explorer

Botha is truly a giant of the game. However, not once in the 85 Test matches he played was he red-carded. Despite the odd ban – after being cited – his record is far more vestal that most of his peers. In fact, Botha comes nowhere near the top ten of the biggest ‘thugs’ in international rugby.

Then there is the bad rap that another hard man Schalk Burger got for the physical nature of his game. He also has no red cards on his record. He does have six yellow cards – one for eye-gouging. But does that make him the game’s biggest thug? Not even close.

Using a formula where a red card is worth five points and a yellow card worth two points, it can be calculated who the top ten ‘thugs’ in the game are. Based on this formula of red and yellow cards earned in international rugby, retired Georgian back row forward Vito Kolelishvili ranks the worst.

He was red-carded just once in his 50 Tests but yellow-carded eight times, earning him 21 ‘thug’ points. Kolelishvili just edges Argentine bad-boy Tomas Lavanini – two red cards and five yellow cards in 56 Tests – 20 points.

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A very close third is Italian hardman Marco Bortolami – one red and seven yellow cards in 112 Tests for 19 points. Surprisingly, the South African placed highest in the top ten is someone you would least expect, legendary wing and record-breaking try-scorer Bryan Habana. He collected seven yellow cards in 124 Tests – mostly for cynical fouls, nothing nasty. His 14 ‘thug’ points place him in joint seventh place.

Another interesting name is Wallaby captain Michael Hooper, who sits in joint fifth place with eight yellow cards, 16 points. Burger and ten other players sit joint ninth on this list, all on 12 points.

If you look at some of the domestic competitions, a very different and interesting picture emerges. The English Premiership has some really bad boys at the top of their list. The most red cards in the Premiership belong to England prop Julian White – five in 164 games.

He is beaten into a distant second place at the top of the Premiership ‘thug’ list by David Paice, the hooker collecting three red cards and 18 yellow cards in his 203 matches for 51 thug points. White, with seven yellow cards to go with his five red cards, manages 39 points. England utility forward Gareth Archer comes in third, two reds and 14 yellow for 28 points in 121 points.

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Super Rugby also has a runaway winner. All Black Ma’a Nonu is well clear with his two red cards and eight yellow cards in his 89 Super Rugby matches for 26 points. Bismarck du Plessis probably earned most of his bad rap in Super Rugby, sharing second place with fellow South African Deon Stegmann, with one red card and five yellow cards for 15 points.

Jean Deysel and James Horwill are the only Super Rugby players other than Nonu to have earned more than one red card. Both collected two reds and two yellow cards for 14 points.

@rugby365.com

TEST RUGBY’S MOST CARDED PLAYERS 

Vito Kolelishvili (Georgia): 1 red, 8 yellow – 21pts

Tomas Lavanini (Argentina): 2 red, 5 yellow – 20pts

Marco Bortolami (Italy): 1 red, 7 yellow – 19pts

Paul Emerick (USA): 2 red, 3 yellow – 18pts

Mario Cagnani (Uruguay): 2 red, 3 yellow – 16pts

Michael Hooper (Australia): 0 red, 8 yellow – 16pts

Jamie Cudmore (Canada): 0 red, 7 yellow – 14pts

Bryan Habana (South Africa): 0 red, 7 yellow – 14pts

PREMIERSHIP RUGBY’S MOST CARDED PLAYERS 

David Paice: 3 red, 18 yellow – 51pts

Julian White: five red, 7 yellow – 39pts

Gareth Archer: 2 red, 14 yellow – 38pts

Chris Hala’ufia: 2 red, 12 yellow – 34pts

Joe Marler: 2 red, 12 yellow – 34pts

SUPER RUGBY’S MOST CARDED PLAYERS 

Ma’a Nonu: 2 red, 8 yellow – 26pts

Bismark du Plessis: 1 red, 5 yellow – 26pts

Deon Stegmann: 1 red, five yellow – 15pts

Jean Deysel: 2 red, two yellows – 14pts

James Horwill: 2 red, two yellow – 14pts

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J
Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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