Rugby player David Klemmer acknowledges that he needs to pick his spots more carefully in order to prevent his natural aggressiveness from creating more issues similar to the one that forced him to miss Canterbury’s round one match in which his squad thumped Manly without Klemmer’s presence.
Klemmer copped a one-game ban for a foul tackle in a trial match with Melbourne last month.
He may have gotten away with his torpedo tackle on Kenny Bromwich had he not earlier been overheard threatening, in his words, to “break some legs.”
The 22-year-old Klemmer has been on the radar previously for his aggressive style. One notorious incident was a rather unsportsmanlike argument with a referee. Another was a profanity-laced tirade directed at a player in State of Origin two in Melbourne.
Klemmer vows that he will never abandon his aggression, but will attempt to pick the right moments.
He says he was not retaliating for an incident in the trial match that posed a threat to his teammate Michael Lichaa, and that it was more a question of a cumulative response to provocations that had been going on for the entire match.
The physical nature of rugby does tend to incite the passions of young men and it is doubtful that expecting them to emulate the demeanor of cricketers when not even cricketers maintain complete decorum any longer is anything more than a futile fantasy.
