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Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga has kicked the can further down the road on his biggest selection headache ahead of the Rugby League World Cup, with incumbent Daly Cherry-Evans to wear the 7 jumper in Australia’s opener with Fiji as Nathan Cleary is to be rested.
DCE will get first crack at the halfback position as Meninga looks set to sit down all the players who featured in the NRL Grand Final for the first game in Leeds.
That means Cleary, along with Panthers teammates Isaah Yeo and Liam Martin, will also not feature, though Mal was less equivocal about Parramatta forward Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
“We haven’t had a chat yet,” said the coach. “We are letting them settle in. I will have a chat with them about how they are feeling. So I might give them a bit of a spell mentally and physically I suppose.
“Maybe Reggie (Campbell-Gillard) as well. We haven’t made a decision yet but it is more than likely.”
“It has been a long year so we have to take that into consideration. It’s a long tour, we have to take that into consideration. Everyone needs to play in those early rounds anyway.”
The RFL, the governing body of rugby league in the UK, has been hit with a bombshell on the eve of the Rugby League World Cup as a group of 75 former players launched a legal suit over their handling of concussions.
Lead by former Great Britain, St Helens and Wigan halfback Bobbie Goulding, the group will seek damages for brain injuries sustained over decades of play, which have subsequently led to above-average rates of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and ongoing mental health issues.
The letter is set to land at the RFL this week, with the biggest media attention on the sport in almost a decade with the World Cup starting on Saturday with England v Samoa. The RFU, the governing body for rugby union, is already working its way through a case brought by over 200 former players.
Goulding himself has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, which is linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), previously known as punchdrunk syndrome due to its prevalence among former boxers.
“We are crying out for help,” said Goulding to England’s Daily Mirror. “It’s the biggest pandemic that’s ever going to hit the sport and it’s happening now. But Rugby League has washed its hands of us.”
“I’ve never been scared of anything in my life, but I’m scared of this.
“I sit looking out the window for six or seven hours. I don’t realise time is passing. There’s mad, bad headaches, where you feel so sick you can’t lift your head off the pillow and I have to take anti-dizziness tablets every day, otherwise the room starts spinning.
“I keep forgetting things. The other day I went to get something to eat and, without thinking, I took my teeth out and put them in the fridge. I couldn’t find them for 24 hours.”
Samoa have been having a great time since they landed in the UK. Alongside their training, they were treated to a rendition of their own siva tau war dance by local schoolchildren – led by former international Freddie Tuilagi – at a civic reception at Doncaster Town Hall, where they are based.
Then they were the guests of honour as local team Doncaster Rovers drew 1-1 at home to Leyton Orient in League Two, the fourth tier of English football.
Afterwards, they celebrated in the best way possible: by posing for a photo outside two of the great cultural institutions for big gangs of lads, the kebab house and the off-licence.
The social media accounts of Toa Samoa stars were filled with photos of the lads posing outside a fast food shop in the town. Reports did not confirm that they indulged in the local delicacies.
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