Sydney Roosters will be forced to start the NRL season without more than half of last year’s first-choice team, after Spencer Leniu was hit with a two-game ban for a high tackle.
Leniu was on Monday handed a grade-two careless high tackle charge, ruling him out of the Roosters’ season-opening clashes with Brisbane and Penrith with an early guilty plea.
If the prop elects to fight the charge at a pre-season judiciary hearing, he would risk spending a third week on the sidelines if the challenge was unsuccessful.
Adding insult to injury for the Roosters is the fact Leniu would only have missed one match, if not for the loading from last year’s racial slur in Las Vegas.
Spencer Leniu in Las Vegas in 2024. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Leniu’s charge capped a horror weekend for the Roosters, who were beaten 48-10 by Newcastle on Sunday and had Mark Nawaqanitawase suffer a calf injury.
The Roosters’ goal-line defence was particularly poor, after a summer where the Roosters have put an emphasis on fixing their points-conceded column.
Considered genuine premiership contenders in each of the past 12 seasons, the Roosters are facing their toughest challenge in more than a decade.
From last year’s first-choice side, star players Joey Manu, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Luke Keary and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves have all left for rugby or English Super League. Halfback Sam Walker is anticipated to miss the first half of the season after returning from an ACL rupture, as is off-contract hooker Brandon Smith.
Sitili Tupouniu has also left for Canterbury, while Terrell May was abruptly released in the off-season and has since moved to Wests Tigers.
The exits of May and Waerea-Hargreaves had left Leniu with a crucial job to do this year, with the former Penrith premiership winner expected to start.
But while Leniu brought Waerea-Hargreaves’ aggression while starting on Sunday, he also had the mix of chaos with his high shot on Phoenix Crossland.
The ban means the Roosters will be without nine of last year’s first-choice team for round one, with two centres, two halves, three props and a hooker among those missing.
Elsewhere, South Sydney have accepted a one-game ban for Lewis Dodd after his high shot on Sione Finau in the Rabbitohs’ 46-26 Charity Shield loss to St George Illawarra.
Lewis Dodd. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
The ban means Dodd will not line up at No.7 for the Rabbitohs in round one against the Dolphins, with Jamie Humphreys now firming to wear the jersey. His suspension comes after an equally bad week for Souths, given Cameron Murray will miss most of the season with an achilles rupture, and Latrell Mitchell the first six rounds through a hamstring tear.
Dodd had already endured a difficult pre-season, failing to add any spark to the Rabbitohs’ attack on his arrival from England.
Canterbury forward Josh Curran is also set to miss the Bulldogs’ opening-round clash with St George Illawarra, after copping a one-match ban for a high tackle.
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