Daily Times

SYDNEY: After two months of practising social distancing, the big men of the National Rugby League were back crashing into each other with muscular relish as professional team sport returned to Australia in Brisbane on Thursday. The third round of the NRL season got underway almost nine weeks after the second with an emphatic 43-6 victory for the Parramatta Eels over the Brisbane Broncos at an empty Lang Park. The 13-man game is the number one winter sport on Australia’s east coast and the match was a strong indication that life is slowly returning to normal after the coronavirus lockdown.

Australia’s more than 7,100 COVID-19 infections and 102 deaths are low compared to many other developed countries but some of the measures imposed to contain the disease remain in place. Halfback Brodie Croft scored Brisbane’s only try in the 17th minute with a blistering turn of pace but was lucky to be playing at all having twice registered a temperature in excess of 37.2 degrees Celsius before the game. Croft, who blamed a cup of coffee, a sweater worn on a warm Queensland evening and excitement for his high temperature, passed the mandatory test at the third attempt. The Eels, who flew up from Sydney on Thursday and returned straight after the match, had taken a third minute lead through lock Marata Niukore after twice benefiting from one of the rule changes introduced for the league’s resumption. To discourage wrestling in the tackle area, the one referee who remains on the pitch after the second was cut in a cost-saving measure can indicate “six more tackles” if he spots an infringement in the ruck.

The NRL is hoping to pick up new fans for their game all around the world after the match was screened in 70 countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Papua New Guinea and Uganda. Those viewers got a glimpse of the skill that exists alongside the brutal physicality after 27 minutes when Parramatta’s Fijian winger Maika Sivo performed a feat of acrobatics to score without going into touch in the corner. The Eels proved too powerful for the young home side in the second half with skipper Clint Gutherson, centres Michael Jennings and Waqa Blake as well as forward Shaun Lane scoring tries to give them three wins out of three for the season.

There was more good news for the NRL on Thursday when the league announced it had extended its TV rights deal with Foxtel until the end of 2027 and Channel Nine until the end of 2022. The pick of the third-round matches comes on Friday when the Sydney Roosters, champions for the last two years, meet the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the oldest and fiercest rivalry in the Australian game.