New Zealand Rugby Player Lays Mammoth Blindside Hit on Opponent

Release the crackin’.

That’s not a pun—it sounds like something snaps when this rugby player unloads on a ball-carrier in this video.

The footage was found by Stephen Douglas of BigLeadSports, who notes the game is a high school rugby match in New Zealand involving St. Paul's Collegiate.

The player delivering the goods is Wanganui Collegiate's Ruslan Casey, who atomizes St. Paul’s Kip Fawcett with a mammoth blindside tackle.

Gif courtesy of BigLeadSports

This is spine realignment at the speed of ginger. Casey is a redheaded man on a mission, and he sprints the breadth of the field to make the play on Fawcett—because Ruslan Casey always gets his man. 

To his credit, Fawcett sacrifices himself and presumably any future he might’ve ever had as a bone marrow donor by extending the play. He holds onto the ball until Casey’s shoulder is about two inches from his rib cage before passing. 

The result was a try for his team, and presumably a trip to the chiropractor for Fawcett, who somehow managed to get up after this hit. 

You probably won’t hear a louder hit than this in rugby—the footage appears to be taken with a handheld camera about 20 yards away from the point of contact, and you can still almost feel the wind generated by the two bodies cracking together. 

Also worthy of noting is Casey’s reaction to the big hit—or rather, his complete lack of reaction. The teenager gets up and walks away from the scene of the detonation without any braggadocio and nary a second look back at the wreckage.

Why? Because that's not what cool guys do.

.Gif via dontlookatexplosions.tumblr.com

Or because he’s a daywalker, and he's not trained to feel.