WHEN FORMER IRELAND flanker Neil Best explains how he selects his targets, he almost sounds like a military sniper. And back in the autumn of 2006 there was probably no harder hitter in world rugby than the bulldozer from Belfast.
The fiery flanker is famous for levelling opponents with either bone-liquefying hits or huge haymakers and when he shares his tackling technique, you quickly understand how he put a hurt on so many opponents.
‘Ideally you want the opposition to be coming off the touchline,” Best says.
Source: colzo666/YouTube
Never has a journey between process and result looked so seamless. His destructive peak may have been in the previous decade but at 35, Best still makes a living in the game playing for London Scottish in the English second-tier.
Now, his shuddering smashes are enjoyed in Youtube compilations rather than on the pitch.
“I don’t do much of that now,” Best says.
“I try to stay out of trouble. It’s not the same now that I have three kids. I don’t really have time to work on my physique so it is harder to make those big tackles.”
He might not crunch opponents as much as he used to but Best is enjoying life at the Championship club, who are currently in fourth place pushing for promotion to the Aviva Premiership.
He says their head coach, James Buckland, is the best he has ever played under and at 33, thinks he has a huge future in the game as he gains experience.
Tackling was one thing that Best never really needed to be coached and it was his calling card during his rise from Ulster novice to international flanker. He was so enthusiastic for physicality that he thought nothing of levelling a team-mate or two at Ulster training.
Best found it hard not to smash his own team-mates in training. Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO
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He even earned a unique nickname for how he conducted himself in the first six years of his career, which began with Ulster in 2002.
“They used to call me ‘friendly fire’ because I would be hitting one of our own players or accidentally stepping on them or purposefully doing something,” Best said.
By his own admission, Best was a wild player as a young man. After leaving Ulster, he picked up a lengthy ban for gouging at Northampton and he was also involved in a fair few punch-ups during his career.
By his estimation, he was involved in one incident at Ulster, two or three at Northampton, two or three at Worcester and none so far at London Scottish.
And that is just with his own team-mates, by the way.
He says witnessing Paul O’Connell ‘almost kill’ Ryan Caldwell with a punch in training before the ’07 World Cup – as well as having three sons – changed his outlook on violence in the game.
“I’ve mellowed a lot with age and also since the Paul O’Connell/ Ryan Caldwell incident,” he says.