SYDNEY // Australia’s National Rugby League season kicks off on Thursday with South Sydney Rabbitohs opening the defence of their title against the backdrop of a damaging drugs scandal blighting the sport and all-too-common player behaviour issues.
The lead up to the new season has been mired by a cocaine scandal that has engulfed the Gold Coast Titans, with five current players facing court along with former NRL and current Queensland Reds Super Rugby player Karmichael Hunt.
Titans coach Neil Henry did not name any of the five players charged, including Australia internationals Greg Bird and Dave Taylor, in the team to play in Saturday’s season opener against Wests Tigers.
If that was not enough unwanted publicity, defending champions Souths were fined AUS$20,000 (Dh56,900) by the NRL following an investigation into an incident in the United States involving two of their players.
Former captain John Sutton and English forward Luke Burgess spent the night behind bars during the team’s trip to Arizona for a training camp in November after they were ejected from a bar.
Both players were charged with “disorderly conduct, fighting”, a misdemeanour offence, while Burgess was also hit with an assault charge, media reports said.
Sutton was stripped of the captain’s armband as Souths captain and Burgess, the brother of English internationals Sam and George Burgess, moved to Manly in the off-season. The Rabbitohs are bidding to become the first side since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992/93 to successfully defend the title in a non-Super League season, but they will have to do it without Sam Burgess, who has switched to rugby union with English club Bath.
Burgess was the NRL’s most influential player last season and claimed the Clive Churchill medal in securing Souths’ first championship title in 43 years in their grand final victory over Canterbury Bulldogs.
Souths have changed their big forward emphasis by recruiting ball-playing back-rower Glenn Stewart from Manly, while they have made Test star Greg Inglis the new captain.
“I think the way the combinations are starting to gel, as we saw overseas, we’ve got some difference about us as a team now,” coach Michael Maguire said. “Everyone has sort of spoken about how we play this game through the middle and I guess we played a certain way.
“But for us, we know what we can do and it’s about going about it.”
The Rabbitohs will go into today’s season opener against the Broncos in Brisbane as winners of the Auckland Nines and the World Club Challenge (WCC) over St Helens.
Since the WCC was switched to a February pre-season date, no Australian side has won the NRL Premiership that same season. Another significant departure is code-hopper Sonny Bill Williams’s return to the Waikato Chiefs in Super Rugby from the Sydney Roosters.
Veteran coach Wayne Bennett has returned to Brisbane – six years after the seven-time premiership-winning tactician left the Broncos for St George Illawarra and his last club, Newcastle Knights.
Manly, who have qualified for the last 10 successive finals series, are under pressure following the off-season exits of forwards Anthony Watmough, and Stewart and Jason King.
The other unknown for Manly is what impact the saga surrounding the futures of halves Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans, with both linked with moves, will have on the Sea Eagles’ team morale.
Missing from the season will be New South Wales state of origin star Jarryd Hayne who quit the NRL to take up a rookie contract with American football team San Francisco 49ers.
His departure is a blow for his Parramatta Eels club’s chances in this season’s competition.
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