Poms have always played dirty

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 15 Agustus 2013 | 22.07

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WHY were we all that surprised when South Sydney forward Sam Burgess put a squirrel grip on Melbourne Storm centre Will Chambers last Friday night?

After all, he is an English rugby league player.

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Remember last year's grand final when Bulldogs forward James Graham took a chunk out of Billy Slater's ear?

He was a Pom, too.

League's lowest acts

And before them, Adrian Morley.

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Remember him? He played six seasons for the Roosters between 2001 and 2006 for 11 foul-play offences and 26 weeks of suspensions.

The biggest was his last, a seven-week ban for a striking charge in 2006.

Colleague Dean Ritchie was on the sideline for 2GB that day at ANZ Stadium.

"He kneed Corey Hughes at the play-the ball - it was one of the most reckless and dirtiest acts I've seen on a football field," Ritchie recalled.

"That was the last we saw of him."

Headbutting, grabbing testicles, biting, kneeing, kicking and king hits - you name it, the Poms have been doing it for more than 50 years.

Former Manly forward Peter Peters tells a fabulous story about Malcolm Reilly's debut for the Sea Eagles in 1971 against Souths at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

He'd been in the country only two days.

When they arrive at the SCG, Reilly starts asking about their opponents and according to Peters, the conversation went like this:

Reilly: Who's their best player?

Peters: Where do you want me to start? Coote, McCarthy, Sait, Pittard, Simms, Branighan …

Reilly: Cmon, who's their best?

Peters: Probably McCarthy.

Reilly: What's his number?

Peters: 10

Reilly: Who kicks off for us?

Peters: Denis Ward.

Reilly: Make sure he kicks it into touch on the full.

And so he did. In those days it meant at scrum back at halfway and Peters takes up the story.

"The touch judges and the refs were watching the ball sail into touch," Peters said.

"As it was happening, Malcolm has elbowed Macca in the head.

"He's face down in the Bulli soil on the cricket pitch and got carted off.

"And that was Malcolm's Reilly's first 30 seconds in the Sydney premiership."

Reilly's fight with South Sydney's George Piggins on the same ground a few years later is often spoken about as the most brutal one-on-one exchange in rugby league history.

Even decades later the Poms were still getting up to their old tricks.

In a story that's never been told from a Test match in 1992 at the Sydney Football Stadium, Australia's champion lock Bradely Clyde copped a "John Hopoate finger" in the backside from Great Britain centre Garry Schofield.

"Yes, it happened," Clyde confirmed Thursday. "I don't know if he was trying to put me off my game or get me to react and draw a penalty.

"I didn't bother retaliating. I was one of those players that if my mind wandered off the actual footy, my game suffered.

"But I'll never forget Bozo (coach Bob Fulton) flagged the incident at a team video session before the next Test."

Cliff Watson was one of the original English hard heads to come to these shores.

He announced himself in the "Battle of Brisbane" Test in 1970, when he and Jim Morgan infamously engaged in a headbutting competition that left the Kangaroos prop with a nose so badly broken his son didn't recognise him in the dressing room after the game.

He is credited for bringing the "Liverpool kiss" to Australia.

The giant prop joined Cronulla and was a central figure in the most brutal grand final ever played in 1973, when the Sharks narrowly went down to Manly.

In a chat with current Sharks captain Paul Gallen this year, Watson gave a blunt assessment of his playing style in relation to the modern game.

"I wouldn't be on the field with my style of play," he said.

The NRL has revealed Burgess came within a just a centimetre of getting a six-week dangerous contact charge rather than two weeks for contrary conduct.

"It was minor contact," said Greg McCallum, the head of the match review panel.

"If he'd got a handful and squeezed, it would have been grade-three dangerous contact.

"We looked at extra angles from Channel Nine and it was more the image of what he did - it looked terrible."

Burgess has apologised to his South Sydney teammates over the incident.

But there's been no word of an apology to the player who really deserved one … Will Chambers.

Typical bloody Pommy.


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