Category: NRL

NRL News

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‘A shithouse stadium’: NRL coach left needing stitches to hand after glass shatters at Canberra stadium

  • Visiting Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo sustains deep gash

  • Calls intensify for ageing GIO Stadium to undergo refurbishment

Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo has joined growing calls for Canberra’s GIO Stadium to undergo a face lift after revealing he would need stitches after glass shattered on him in the ageing arena.

While the visiting coach was left with a deep gash in his hand, Raiders boss Ricky Stuart also weighed in, calling his side’s home arena a “shithouse stadium” and claiming authorities didn’t care about the state of the 1970s-built venue.

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Fans storm field as South Sydney veteran Alex Johnston breaks NRL try-scoring record

  • Wild celebrations during game despite threat of fines

  • Winger scores 213th try of his career against Roosters

Thousands of fans have stormed onto the field at Allianz Stadium to celebrate South Sydney veteran Alex Johnston breaking the NRL’s try-scoring record.

The winger entered the history books when a break down the left edge put him over for his 213th career try, and his second in Friday’s clash with bitter rivals Sydney Roosters.

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Codebreakers: rugby players who shift between union, league and sevens

Male and female players are increasingly willing and able to switch codes, with some even playing all three

By No Helmets Required

Charlotte Caslick epitomises the term code agnostic. The 31-year-old has clocked up 328 appearances for Australia in rugby sevens, winning Olympic gold, Commonwealth gold and a Sevens World Cup along the way; she’s played rugby union for her state and country; and rugby league in the world’s biggest women’s club competition in any code, the NRLW. So, why is she – and so many other players from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific – good enough to switch between codes – and why do they want to?

“It probably comes down to the way we grow up,” says Caslick. “We play so many different sports all year round, changing between them. Boys will play school rugby on Saturday then club rugby league on Sunday for as long as they can. More girls are starting to do that as well. Throw in touch or oztag, and we have so many opportunities. It challenges athletes to find where they are best suited. Until you get exposed to different formats, you don’t know which one is for you.”

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Bulldogs’ Stephen Crichton kicks golden-point winner in final seconds to beat Dragons

  • Canterbury defeats St George Illawarra 15-14 in Las Vegas

  • Knights beat Cowboys 28-18 in NRL opener at Allegiant Stadium

Canterbury skipper Stephen Crichton stood up like only he can to land a field goal with six seconds of golden point remaining to sink a gallant St George Illawarra 15-14.

A record Las Vegas crowd of 45,719 got their first taste of golden point and it took 89 minutes and 54 seconds of a cracking, old-fashioned arm wrestle to split the teams.

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Super League is NRL’s secret weapon as 12,000 English fans head to Vegas

Hull KR face Leeds in Sin City on Saturday, with the supporters they bring in tow illustrating the league’s value to the global game

Rugby league’s greatest ride returns to Las Vegas this weekend with Super League nestled firmly in the sidecar. Two NRL fixtures kick off the Australian season while Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos open up the Allegiant Stadium action on Saturday. More than 12,000 English fans are expected to make the trip and add plenty of colour, flair and, most importantly, value.

This has been a strong start to 2026 for the game in England, evidenced last week by Hull KR’s triumph over Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Challenge. It is handy for Super League that the Robins are one of two clubs in Vegas representing the competition this week and they have even flown the trophy over to hammer home the point that Super League holds the cards when it comes to the best club side in the game.

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‘We are quirky and imaginative’: how Hull KR won the treble and world title

The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they reached the top so quickly and what it will take to stay there

By No Helmets Required

When Hull Kingston Rovers play Leeds Rhinos in Las Vegas on Saturday night, they will do so as domestic treble winners and world club champions. The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they made it this far and what they want to achieve next.

Leeds say they will struggle to break even on Vegas as the Super League teams have to pay all their own costs. So how difficult a decision was it to give up a home game to go? “It was a big decision and one that we didn’t take lightly. Part of our strategy is to constantly raise our profile and when you looked at the results from a marketing and audience perspective for Wigan v Warrington in Vegas last year, the eyeballs on that were incredible. You don’t get given a pot of money: you have to generate your own money through ticket sales. But like Leeds, we felt that we have a big enough fanbase to financially support our ability to go out there. It’s an incredibly tough schedule but to put ourselves on that stage was too big an opportunity to turn down. A year ago we said: ‘What if we won the Grand Final? It’ll be the World Club Challenge and straight into Vegas.’ We just decided to worry about it when it happens. And now it’s happened!”

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Rugby league should celebrate and build on the World Club Challenge

Hull KR v Brisbane Broncos was a cracker and further proof that the event should be set in stone every year

By No Helmets Required

Lifelong memories are not usually made during dank winter nights at the MKM Stadium in Hull, but the World Club Challenge will be treasured even by those of us who do not have red and white allegiances. The match was an absolute cracker but, even if NRL champions Brisbane Broncos had strolled to victory rather than losing a spellbinding game to Hull Kingston Rovers, the event would still have been a spectacular success.

There were fireworks, a light show, music from Reverend and The Makers, and a rammed “away end” knocking out Robins anthems. Fans turned the stadium red as they waved thousands of flags while decked out in glasses from sponsors Specsavers. It was all simple but hugely effective, which is an apt description for Hull KR as a club and team.

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‘Landmark moment’: Emma Lawrence to become first woman to call NRL games

  • Presenter joins Triple M’s play-by-play commentary team

  • Move hailed as win for women working in sport broadcasting

Emma Lawrence will become the first woman in NRL broadcast history to call a game, with Triple M including “one of the sharpest broadcasters in rugby league” on its play-by-play commentary team for the new season.

Lawrence, one of the most respected voices in the game, will enter the domain previously reserved for men in a move the radio station called a “landmark moment”. Female voices are present across broader coverage of the NRL, but a woman has never been handed the prestigious play-by-play call before.

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Hull KR’s rollercoaster ride from the depths to chance of World Club Challenge glory

Longstanding owner Neil Hudgell has revived club and the Super League champions take on Brisbane Broncos with the world crown up for grabs

To appreciate the absolute highs, you perhaps have to first experience the ultimate lows: when Hull KR walk out for Thursday’s World Club Challenge, few will be better placed to say they have done that quite like their longstanding owner, Neil Hudgell.

The Super League champions will aim to be crowned the world’s best club rugby league side for the first time when they take on the NRL’s Brisbane Broncos. To satisfy the unprecedented demand, they have taken ownership of the venue of their great rivals, Hull FC, for one night only – with 25,000 supporters, double the capacity of their Craven Park home, buying tickets in record time.

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Former NRL star Matt Utai shot in alleged ‘brazen ambush’ outside home in western Sydney

Premiership-winning Canterbury winger hit in stomach and leg in Greenacre shooting

Former NRL star Matt Utai is in hospital fighting for his life after being shot multiple times on his front lawn, in what police are treating as an ambush attack with no clear motive.

The 2004 premiership-winning Canterbury winger was left with serious leg wounds after the attack in Greenacre, in western Sydney, at about 6am on Tuesday.

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Travball emerges, athletics surges, Brisbane basks in success: Australia’s biggest sporting moments of 2025

An Ashes-defining intervention, an NRL showstopper, and new hope forced on the AFL are among our writers’ great moments in Australian sports this year

The highly anticipated Ashes was quickly torn apart by Travis Head’s cameo at the top of the order that has since turned into a much longer stay. The NRL grand final was another scene for an all-time breathtaking display, as the Broncos joined the AFL’s Lions in making Brisbane the epicentre of Australian sport. Here are our writers’ sporting highlights of 2025.

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Ex-Alice Springs school principal spared jail for assaulting Indigenous students

Gavin Morris, a former NRL referee, found guilty of putting pupils in choke holds and twisting their ears

A former NRL referee has been spared jail after abusing his position of trust as a school principal by putting Indigenous students into choke holds and painfully twisting their ears.

Gavin Morris was found guilty of four counts of aggravated assault and on Thursday was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment fully suspended for two years on condition he be of good behaviour.

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Barry O’Farrell to be reinstated as Wests Tigers chair after club owners bow to NRL pressure

  • Four independent directors sacked by Holman Barnes Group invited back

  • No bearing on Shane Richardson’s exit as hunt for new CEO starts

Barry O’Farrell is set to return as Wests Tigers chair alongside his ousted independent directors after the joint-venture club’s owners bowed to NRL demands.

In the latest bizarre twist after 10 days of Tigers turmoil, the Holman Barnes Group (HBG) on Thursday agreed to invite back the board members sacked last Monday.

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NRL proposes heavy bans for Tonga doctors and trainer over Eli Katoa head knocks

  • Head doctor, assistant doctor and head trainer issued breach notices

  • Storm player to sit out 2026 season after surgery for bleeding on brain

The NRL is proposing to ban three members of Tonga’s medical staff for two years, claiming serious concerns over the handling of Eliesa Katoa’s multiple head knocks.

More than a month after Katoa required surgery for bleeding on the brain following seizure activity, the NRL handed down findings into the matter on Monday.

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‘Counterfeiting a code’: NRL announces 10-year ban for players who engage with R360

  • Agents who take players to unregistered competitions also face ban

  • Rules will ‘protect future of the game’, ARLC chair Peter V’landys says

The NRL has vowed to ban any player who leaves the code for R360 for 10 years, as it fights to fend off the threat of the breakaway rugby competition.

In a statement on Wednesday, the NRL also threatened to ban any agent if they take a player to the rebel competition.

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