Phillip Booth
After playing rugby through all the grades growing up, at the age of 19, I set off on my big OE, playing rugby in England and Scotland, running with the bulls in Spain and touring South Africa for the ‘95 Rugby World Cup. It was the time of my life. I returned to New Zealand for Christmas of 1996 and some 2 months later I played my first game back with my old club. Unfortunately, it was also to be my last. It took only a split second as we engaged for the first scrum of the game; one prop pulled out, I thought I could still make it so I ducked my head. Wrong decision. I crushed the top of my head into the opposition's shoulder and snapped my neck at C5/C6 pushing one vertebrae up into C4. As one of my props held me up, I looked down at my body; although my brain was telling my legs were off to the left, my eyes told me they lay off to the right. At that point, I knew what had happened but the stark reality had yet to sink in.
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