The former Rabbitoh returned to haunt his old NRL club with a hand in four tries, one of his own and six goals from six attemptsWhen Adam Reynolds ran onto Olympic Stadium on Thursday night, South Sydney fans were flummoxed. The local boy who had grown up a spiral kick from Redfern Oval, won a premiership with Souths in 2014 and captained the Rabbitohs to the 2021 grand final, had come home in a once-unthinkable form: captain and talisman of the Brisbane Broncos.It was a year since Reynolds announced he was trading Redfern for Red Hill. After nine years bleeding red and green the club had deemed him fit for only a one year extension. Reynolds believed he had more...
Latrell Mitchell chases inner peace while Nathan Cleary’s return signals the real start of Penrith’s pursuit of back-to-back titlesLatrell Mitchell is unlikely to view Friday’s clash between the Rabbitohs and Panthers in a re-run of last year’s grand final as a chance to provide any kind of atonement but deep down the emotional fullback will feel an added responsibility to carry South Sydney on his broad shoulders.Mitchell missed last year’s decider after he was suspended for six weeks following a shocking incident when Souths met rivals the Sydney Roosters. Mitchell aggressively hit former teammate Joey Manu high, leaving the mercurial Roosters centre with a facial fracture that ended his season. Continue reading...
Channel 4 will show games on terrestrial TV for the first time, and while French newcomers will add colour last season’s heavyweights look even strongerWhisper it quietly, but for the first time in a good few years there is genuine optimism in rugby league ahead of what could be a seminal year for Super League. Few sports suffered quite like league did throughout the early stages of the pandemic, a point underlined by the publication of club accounts over the winter that showed monumental losses running into the millions for some of the biggest clubs.But, cautiously, that period appears to be behind us and Super League 2022 provides a chance to lay a positive platform for this year’s rescheduled World...
Players who suffered multiple concussions are at high risk, so why is a charity and not sporting authorities leading the way?There’s the damage you can see, and the damage you can’t. A new study by the UK rugby health project at Durham University has shown that professional rugby players are more likely to have mental health issues in retirement than athletes in non-contact sports, and that those who suffered multiple concussions during their playing career are at even greater risk of depression, anxiety, sleep and anger issues.The study suggests a strong association between head trauma and mental health in both codes of rugby, and provides evidence of what many people working in the field already believe to be true: rugby...
A Catalans Dragons win would be a monumental moment for a sport in desperate need of something newFor almost five years, few teams have captivated British rugby league quite like St Helens. From the brilliance – on the field, at least – of Ben Barba’s short-lived spell with the club, to the dominance they have engineered in the past two seasons, it has not been difficult as a neutral to feel some level of affinity with the Saints.But this Saturday the back-to-back Super League champions are cast very much in the role of villains. For the third time in five years a team will make their Grand Final debut when Catalans take to the field at Old Trafford. Castleford failed...