Incidents of “kung fu” kicking in rugby are dividing opinion, after a second case in successive weeks of a player sent off for jumping in the air and dangerously planting the studs of his boot into an opponent.
A player jumping for the ball may naturally raise a foot in front of him to maintain balance, but twice now it has been ruled as a dangerous act against an opponent on the ground. So the players who used to be under scrutiny from referees for illegal contact with airborne opponents have suddenly become the ones in need of protection.
Dynamic players like England’s Manny Feyi-Waboso and Saracens’ 6ft 4in Noah Caluori are adept at leaping long and high with the aim of controlling the mid-air space or at the very least not being second to the ball.
The ensuing aerial contest can be an exciting part of the game. But the two “kung fu” incidents have shone a light on the danger to the player who never makes it off the ground.
La Rochelle's Antoine Hastoy is sent off after just 34 seconds of play The Frenchman is shown red for a kick to the head of Aaron Grandidier pic.twitter.com/7aMpkn5vnA
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) November 30, 2025La Rochelle fly-half Antoine Hastoy was shown the quickest red card in Top 14 history last week. As the France international leapt to catch a high kick, his right foot was elevated in front of him, and the studs scraped down the chin and neck of the approaching Pau wing Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang.
Referee Jérémy Rozier slapped down the complaints on the touchline from La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara, saying: “The rule is very clear. The player is bleeding, the foot goes directly to his head, it’s a red card.”
La Rochelle were on the other side of the debate in a similar incident 14 minutes into their 39-20 win at home to Leicester Tigers in the Champions Cup on Saturday. Tigers full-back George Pearson was sent to the sin bin by Irish referee Andrew Brace for dangerous play.
"I've got to disagree with that completely" Was George Pearson unlucky to receive a yellow card here? @AndyGoode10 thinks so #InvestecChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/K06bwc3hV3
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) December 6, 2025Again Pearson as the player receiving a box-kick made a jump as he caught the ball, and his raised leading foot made contact with the neck area of La Rochelle’s wing Davit Niniashvili. The lesser impact made it a yellow card, rather than a red.
Premier Sports’ summariser Andy Goode, the former Leicester and England fly-half, saw it the other way round – as a penalty against Niniashvili for tackling Pearson in the air – as well as highlighting how the impacted player might milk the situation by play-acting.
Ex-Leicester fly-half Andy Goode felt his former side were hard done by (Photo: Getty)In the studio though, Alex Cuthbert and Topsy Ojo – both ex-international wings – agreed with the sin-bin decision.
“He [Pearson] is off balance,” Ojo explained. “You get taught to jump and use your knee to protect you, but as you can see there, Pearson starts to tilt back in the air and his leg does come out.” And Cuthbert added: “Safety is paramount.”
It needs to be remembered it is a player’s choice to jump for a ball. And unless the two contesting players jump simultaneously, the player arriving second can be worried about conceding possession softly, in what is often a split-second decision.
In the case of Hastoy, some observers absolved him of guilt, saying he was in the process of twisting his body to get the ball back on his side as Grandidier-Nkanang arrived.
Some pinned the blame on Grandidier-Nkanang, saying it was up to him to allow Hastoy to come safely to ground.
Others regarded it as a deliberate act by Hastoy – perhaps because his eyes appeared to be fixed on his opponent at the time of the collision, and Grandidier-Nkanang had blood drawn from his lip and a weal on his neck.
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O’Gara, who was sent to the stands in the second half, was still baffled after the match. He doubted any intent on Hastoy’s part to hurt his opponent.
“With a little hindsight, I understand the logic behind the ‘kung fu fighting’: the studs in the opponent’s head,” O’Gara said. “But I think there were mitigating circumstances.”
With so much riding on claiming possession, we could be seeing further contentious incidents of this kind.
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