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Former Queensland Red and Wallabies prospect stood down by NRL club

By Online Editors

17 Feb 2020

Izaia Perese. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Former Queensland Reds player and Wallabies prospect Izaia Perese has been immediately stood down by the NRL club Brisbane Broncos after being charged with drug offences.

The Broncos confirmed the NRL integrity unit have been informed of the development and the former Wallabies prospect will be unable to fulfil club duties.

“Standing down Izaia is not a judgement of his guilt or innocence, but recognition that this is a serious matter,” Broncos boss Paul White said on Monday.

“We have discussed our course of action and the reasoning behind it with Izaia, and he understands the action we have taken.

“We will review the matter as it moves through the legal process.”

A Queensland under-16s representative, Perese switched to rugby union in his teens and played alongside the likes of Kalyn Ponga and Brodie Croft. He opted to stay in rugby and played for the Australian under-20 side at the World under-20 Championships before going on to play Super Rugby.

He went on to play a total of 17 games with the Queensland Reds between 2016-18, before walking out on the final year of his Reds contract to move back to League and pursue an NRL career with the Broncos. He was a no-show at the Reds pre-season training while negotiating his release with the Reds and Rugby Australia.

He was touted to be the next ‘big thing’ for the Wallabies, earning praise from Wallabies coach Michael Cheika who said Perese was “killing it” while touring with the team in a training capacity.

Perese went on to make his NRL debut off the bench against Penrith in round 22 last season, and made one more appearance in the final game of the regular season.

-AAP

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Comments on RugbyPass

RedWarrior 10 minutes ago

Andy Farrell faces up to concerning Irish 'trends' ahead of Fiji

There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.

SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.

2 Go to comments

RedWarrior 27 minutes ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

Yep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?

45 Go to comments

Mark 38 minutes ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Totally agree, and with the Greenwood comment you have hit the nail on the head, England have never managed to replace Greenwood.

And although it's a simple analogy if you look at today's England side, how many of them would make a combined world xv?.

As you allude to, they are I'm afraid mediocre.

3 Go to comments

Lisa Decker 41 minutes ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

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Werner 43 minutes ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

I dare say it's an "everyone against the ABs" scrapbook. Only time I've seen him give half a compliment is when he talks about other teams beating the Springboks. Even in this article he puts the Argentina win in NZ down to the ABs being bad rather than the Argentines playing well, which they have been doing all year round.

49 Go to comments

AA 54 minutes ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Agreed. Borthwick will have to write a new excuse book soon .

I have looked at the two world cup final teams from 2003 and 2020.

2003 team scored 187 tries between them in 389 caps

2020 team scored 113 tries between them in 473 caps. As you can see a huge disparity in scoring rate. Only Johnny May with 36 tries in 78 caps scored a higher amount of tries. Elliot Daly comes close but the rest are frankly very poor.

Farrell and Ford scored a pathetic 20 tries between them in a combined 210 caps.

There again , the 2003 team did have Wilko and Greenwood etc whereas 2020 team had Ford and Farrell .

So much people saying that Fords strength is of bringing others into the game .

Really. The figures totally disprove that notion .

It has been mentioned elsewhere that we have accepted mediocrity far too often and the figures would indicate that players are or have been picked far too often without performing .

3 Go to comments

Alex 1 hour ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

Not disputing that NZ are ahead of Eng. Also not saying Eng are unlucky (though clearly the tone of the article is not that the ABs were unlucky but that they 'should have' won). Your team are looking great and are on the up. I just felt that Pundits have argued Eng 'should have' won the first test against the ABs, when it's more nuanced than that, and very fine margins determine results that Eng didn't get right. Same applies, therefore, to NZ and other nations. Ben Smith though doesn't seem to see it that way. To be clear: I'm not saying I agree with the 'should haves', but more that I take issue with the phrasing.

Good to see your respect for other nations is so strong! Proper rugby fan you are!!!

49 Go to comments

RedWarrior 1 hour ago

Did Rassie Erasmus miss a trick with his latest South Africa squad?

GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.

52 Go to comments

RedWarrior 1 hour ago

'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'