Canterbury stars break ranks and reveal the truth behind brutal training punishment for teammate which has rocked the NRL… and claim he had to wrestle as many as THIRTY players

Canterbury stars have revealed the truth behind what really happened to their teammate during a shocking training session which has rocked the footy world. 

The club launched an investigation into the treatment of an unnamed fringe first grader who was allegedly made to wrestle more than a dozen teammates for being 10 minutes late.

The player has since walked out on the club and has refused to return. 

The Rugby League Players Association is also investigating the incident that happened five weeks ago amid reports about player discontent surrounding first-year coach Cameron Ciraldo. 

And now, some of those players have broken rank and spoken to the media anonymously about the training session in question, revealing that the true number of teammates the fringe player was forced to wrestle was much higher than the initially reported 12. 

‘It was a knee wrestle where you’ve got to get your opponent onto their back,’ one said of the punishment, which is known as ‘shark bait’.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the player is understood to have not apologised for being late, as he believed he was on time, and that other players were reluctant to complain to Ciraldo. 

It has also been reported that weeks earlier club captain Raymond Faitala-Mariner confronted Ciraldo about the treatment of players, but nothing changed. 

A second player, who has left the club, said he departed due to the environment at Canterbury.  

‘I just didn’t enjoy being there,’ he said.

‘A lot of other players felt the same. It had nothing to do with hard work … it was just the environment.’

It has also been suggested that a number of Canterbury players are upset with Ciraldo for publicly criticising their work ethic in recent weeks. 

One player said: ‘No one is afraid to work hard. That’s never been the problem.’ 

Despite the incident raising eyebrows among rival NRL clubs, Ciraldo insists he will continue issuing physical punishments to his players. 

Ciraldo said physical punishment for a drop in standards was one of many penalties and he would continue to push the players as a way to ‘change’ behaviours.

‘We’ve gone through a range of different ways of talking about holding standards,’ he said.

‘Some of that has been monetary (fines), others have been spinning a wheel and others trying to find ways to change behaviours.

‘The reality is we need to change behaviours here. I think we have done a good job of that throughout the season and we will continue to find ways to change behaviours to winning behaviours.’