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Watch Jesse Kriel get sat down as NRL convert scores 'worldie'
By Jon Newcombe
Some cracking tries were scored on either side of the world at the elite end of club rugby over the weekend, but none could touch Valynce Te Whare’s brilliant 95-metre run for sheer power and brutality in the Shizuoka Blue Revs’ 38-28 comeback win against Yokohama Canon Eagles.
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Arron Reed scored a brilliant length-of-the-field effort in the Gallagher Premiership as Sale Sharks enhanced their play-off hopes with a 25-7 win over Saracens. At the same time, in the URC, Dan du Plessis finished off a jaw-dropping behind-the-back pass from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu as the Stormers beat Benetton 56-5, while Gareth Davies scored arguably the pick of a good bunch in the Scarlets’ impressive win over Leinster.
But in Japan Rugby League One, which you can watch on RugbyPass TV every weekend, Te Whare was in Jonah Lomu-esque beast mode as he picked up the ball on his own five-metre line, blasted through three tackles, brushed aside two more, rounded the full-back and then outstripped the cover defence.
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It was a particularly humbling experience for one of the best defenders in the game in the 13 channel, Springbok great Jesse Kriel, who was unceremoniously sat down by the New Zealand-qualified, former Dolphins NRL winger on his way to the line.
Te Whare’s try came with the game finely poised at 24-21, to the Shizuoka Blue Revs, with just under 15 minutes to go.”Te Whare backs himself around the outside, uses Jesse Kriel as a speed bump, and he’s still going,” said awestruck RPTV commentator Dave Rogers.
The 108kg winger’s league career petered out in 2024 amidst claims he wasn’t fit enough, but his cross-code switch and the move to Japan has been an unqualified success.
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The 24-year-old scored on debut for Shizuoka Blue Revs in December and hasn’t looked back, not even to check his rear view mirror to see the defenders trailing in his sizeable wake.
The next Japan Rugby League One match to be shown on RPTV is Kubota Spears vs Saitama Wildknights, this Saturday, May 3rd.
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Some really weird hyperbolic nonsense commenting going on here. The guy is a proven champion and he messed up one tackle in a domestic game and got bumped. If this was a test match yeah he may well get dropped for that but if anyone is thinking that a test match coach is going to be writing off Jesse Kriel’s international career because he got bumped on one occasion in a domestic game then I have no idea what your perspective is. Have a watch of Johnny Wilkinson trying to tackle Opeti Fonua? S**t happens. Occasionally good players miss tackles, they're people not machines.
Indeed. I didn’t see the All Blacks drop 118kg Scott Barrett when he got sat down by 75kg Cheslin Kolbe. Now that was really embarrassing.
Do your homework. VTW was a league player for 2 years max. Hardly a convert. Was a Waikato NPC squad member for longer than his short NRL stint.
Isn’t that what an NRL convert is, someone who converts to the NRL? 🤣
Clickbait, he didn't get sat down at all. He just missed the tackle.
He missed the tackle…in the act of getting sat down/pumped/steam rolled/emptied/flattened.
You’d get dropped from the squad for less than that.
Yes he didn’t get ‘Sat Down’ …..He got FLATTEN 😆
A 2 x World Cup winning Springbok should make those types of tackles every single time. It was utterly embarrassing.
Was the worst tackle i’ve ever seen he made kriel look like a schoolboy