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'He's gone blue, stopped moving. He's stopped breathing. I'm screaming'
Former England player Delon Armitage has recalled the now infamous James O’Connor bus seizure in the south of France, which made headlines back in 2016 – a scene he witnessed first-hand.
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The then Toulon fullback Armitage was playing cards with O’Connor when the Wallabies star started fitting in front of him on the way back from a Top 14 game at Oyonnax.
O’Connor’s hard-partying lifestyle – which included booze and drugs – had eventually caught up with him and although teammate Armitage can laugh about the incident now, he admits he found it deeply traumatising at the time.
Taking up the tale on the RugbyPass Offload Podcast, Armitage sets out the scene as the Toulon bus sped along the motorway in France.
“We had an away game and we were [returning] on the bus. You have your losers at the front, on their phones, watching a film.
“Then you have the middle guys who will have a sip, one or two few drinks. Not too keen.
“You’ve got the back of the bus, music guys. Just in front of them, where the tables are you’ve got your card playing boys. Your poker boys. If you’re not playing cards you can’t sit there.
“Where we had that table, underneath we had a cooler for drinks. If you won the game that would be full. If you hadn’t you might have a couple.
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“I was sat there with James and few others. All of a sudden he starts twitching around. He’s opposite me. I’m quite a squeamish guy. I don’t like stuff like that. I don’t even watch horror films.
“And the way he was twitching, I straight away jumped up. Then he banged his head on the window and I was thinking this isn’t right. Then he starts really biting down. Now that scared me.
“I was screaming and [Mathieu] Bastareaud starts screaming as well. We’re screaming for the doctor to come. I was panicking and shaking.”
Teammate Mamuka Gorgodze had a rather unorthodox approach to treating O’Connor’s seizure, arguing that if he punched him unconscious the seizure would stop.
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“Then the Georgian, Mamuka arrived and he said we have to stop him swallowing his tongue. I said the way he’s biting if you put your finger in that’s gone.
“He decides if he throws some punches, he’ll knock him out he’ll relax. He starts punching him, trying to put him out cold. If he’s out cold he won’t swallow his tongue [he argued].
“I said nah, nah, nah, stop that. You’ll knock his teeth out,” a panic-stricken Armitage pleaded. “We put him down in the middle [aisle of the bus] and we’re still screaming at the doctor. This has gone on for minutes but it felt like hours.
“He’s gone blue, he’s stopped moving. He’s stopped breathing. I’m screaming at the doctor to come down.”
Despite the commotion, the team doctor was apparently pretty non-plussed by the incident.
“He [the doctor] starts coming down and he’s like it’s fine, saying ‘We’ve got three minutes. We can bring him back. He’ll be fine. It’s okay. It’s all good.” He’s [the doctor] nice and relaxed coming down and I’ve put [O’Connor] in position and hold him. But he’s like blue so I’m sweating, thinking this guy is dying in my hand!”
The Australian then came around.
“Next thing – boom – he’s come back. He lying there and they’ve stopped the bus on the motorway. Everybody is shoved off the bus.”
Los Pumas star Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe had different priorities once it was clear the Aussie had come around.
“All I can remember in my head is Juan [Martín Fernández] Lobbe going ‘Can you move?’.
“I was like ‘What?’ and he said ‘Can you get out of the way?’ He’s got James’ leg and he’s lifted it up and he’s gone between his leg and started grabbing beers out and he’s like ‘Well, we’re going to be waiting for a while’.
“I’m like this guy has almost died,” laughs Armitage. “I looked at him and he’s like ‘What? What?’ And he then walks away with the beers.
“So James gets up. Doesn’t have a clue what happened. He didn’t have a clue who I was. My brother was there as well, Steff. I think he only knew who Steff was. No one else, so that was kind of weird.
“He didn’t know who I was so I was like ‘I’m just going to grab a beer’ and walked out. We had to wait for an ambulance. We had to wait there for hours.
“When it got there he didn’t want to go. He was in the hospital for like three days.”
Another seizure would become a turning point for the Wallaby – now 32 – who has since returned to Australia and gone on to play again for the Wallabies.
Comments on RugbyPass
More useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
22 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
1 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
21 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
13 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
21 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
13 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
22 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to commentsWhere has our good friend Pecos gone!? Similar place to the Crusaders D, the abyss.
4 Go to commentsNice piece Nick. I haven’t seen much of the brumbies this year so will keep my powder dry on charlie, but clearly has the speed and footwork to be damaging in space. Similar to Samu, I’d worry about the size of our pack if the likes of Mcreight and Cale were in the b/row together. Maybe Cale could play a similar finisher role like Samu did for Rennie’s wallabies. Has Cale leapfrogged wilson in your eyes? He obviously has the lineout, but harry probably better (although not great) in the physical stuff and also has great hands in the loose. You’d have to say mcreight and valetini are shoe-ins at 7/8, so the question becomes who matches best with them at 6 and on the bench. I don’t know if he has a high enough ceiling, but id love to see wright given a shot based on how much bad luck he has had with injuries. He may also fit that no-nonsense graft/work rate irish approach…? If schmidt wants size and a 4/6 tweener then I’d probably pick Uru. On the bench I’d have no idea, Wilson if you want to give valetini a rest, and maybe hanigan/wright/uru as 6 replacements.
21 Go to commentsWho the heck is Billy Fulton?
13 Go to commentsCale has all the potential no doubt. So has Harry Wilson except for his dumb arse coach over the last few years who told him just to run at brick walls all the time. Valentini would be devastating at 6. As he was until some idiot thought oh yeah, move our best player to another position. Not mentioning any flightless or thank you names of course. I very much dislike claiming one player is the saviour, because injuries are so prevalent in the game these days as the players are bigger and faster, so the discussion should be who are at least the best two players in one position. For me it’s Harry Wilson and Cale at 8 at the moment with Valentini or Hooper from the Brumbies at 6. Great options. Seru Uru should be in the reserves too. A game changer.
21 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a card waiting to happen, Cane has been out with injury as well as playing in Japan, I think they’ll go with in-Japan-but-still-the-man Savea. Samisoni Taukeaho will be Captain after 2027, so he might get some Captain minutes against an Italy or Japan.
13 Go to commentsDissapointed that after 7 years Crusaders could not have found a coach that believed their system and improved on it. What was he expecting?
6 Go to comments