The Lions were playing against Mpumalanga. One of the South Africans stamped on Doddie's outstretched knee in a ruck in a nasty bit of foul play. Shredded his knee ligaments and ended his tour. Absolutely disgusting.
John Bentley wrote in his book how devastated he was for Doddie after this happened and you can see why watching this. So touching seeing his fairly stoic reaction when it's obvious to tell how gutted he musta been, to have his test dreams shattered and tour finished by a fellow professional outside the laws of the game. Makes you choke up.
I met Dod's and most of the boy's prior to the tour as the used (in part my old club University Vandals along with Weybridge Park Hotel) the Vandals ground is on an Island which is privately owned, so they have they final word on who can come onto the Island (re press etc) this actually pretty much finished Dod's as a player, absolute disgrace. I love the Lions but the "warm up games" do appear to be attritional when the opposition deliberately take out players, Look i'm not against a bit of rufty tufty but for fuck's sake, things like the O'driscoll double spear tackle, and the Duncan McRae incident on O'Gara (yes whilst overrated and in need of a kick up the arse) this was unprovoked and abhorrent to the game I love, he should have been banned (McRae) for this, and the utter prick when sent of shrugs his shoulders and says why? despicable
