Player’s jaw broken in ‘attack on pitch’

Jul 22 2008 by Sam Wonfor, The Journal

AN amateur rugby player was left with a broken jaw after violence erupted on the pitch during a pre-season friendly match, a court heard yesterday.

Andrew Rickaby, a flanker with Percy Park Rugby Club in North Shields, was allegedly punched to the left side of his face by Andrew Sangster, his opposing number with Peebles Rugby Club in the Scottish Borders.

The 22-year-old, who has been playing rugby since he was seven years old, dropped to his knees but continued to stay in the match until it ended five minutes later, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He spent two days in hospital where he underwent surgery to repair his fractured jaw and also had to have a cracked wisdom tooth extracted, the court was told.

Sangster, 25, of Yeamen Place, Edinburgh, denies inflicting grievous bodily harm on August 25 last year.

Caroline Goodwin, prosecuting, said rugby was a physical sport but it was the Crown’s case that Sangster had “overstepped the mark”.

She said: “The assault he perpetrated was not part and parcel of the push and shove one would ordinarily expect of a rugby match but an assault of a retaliatory nature because of something which happened earlier in the match.

“The prosecution say there was a scrum, the ball came out and it was passed out and Andrew Rickaby, anticipating the play, began to move into position.

“At the time he did that, he was not playing the ball, he was not involved in a tackle, he was not in the actual line of play.

“He had moved out anticipating the play and he has then, the Crown say, been assaulted by the defendant.

“The defendant was seen by another player using his right arm and punching Mr Rickaby in the side of his face. Having hit the left-hand side of his jaw, he caused Mr Rickaby to fall on to his knees.

“At the end of the match Mr Rickaby went off and in the clubhouse asked ‘Who hit me?’ and the person who piped up was the defendant: ‘I hit you’. He asked why and the reply was ‘Because you hit me.’

“The defendant was interviewed and what he was saying was he had been assaulted earlier in the game, had his eye gouged and during the course of the incident it was not an assault, he had effectively shoulder charged him, body checked him. What you have to decide is was there a punch,” Ms Goodwin told the jury. Giving evidence, Mr Rickaby said when the ball was passed out of the scrum, he ran towards where he thought it would be going, running across the pitch and slightly backwards. He said he had been “nowhere near the play” when he was struck from behind. “All I remember is a sharp pain in my face and I went down on one knee,” he said. “I knew there was a problem because basically I had never felt pain like that before.”

Mr Rickaby said he had had no previous problems during the game with Sangster and had not been involved in any earlier incident with him and had nothing to do with the swollen black eye he saw Sangster had after the match.

The trial continues today.