It was sadly one of the bigger stories of the World Cup when it was reported that there has been an alleged altercation between England’s star man Victor Radley and Irish international and Leeds Rhinos’ man James Bentley on the eve of England’s World Cup exit.
At the time the story dominated the media and the NRL in particular have been sweating on it as the IRL ruled that because the incident took place at England’s team hotel in Manchester that the RFL should handle the issue.
Bentley had been invited back to the team hotel by current and former team-mates, with the incident said to have happened after Bentley started criticising England head coach Shaun Wane.
It’s been announced today by the RFL that Radley has been cleared of any wrongdoing regarding the alleged incident with the Englishman found to be acting in self-defence.
The report states: “An RFL investigation has exonerated England forward Victor Radley of any blame for an incident which took place following his side’s exit from the Rugby League World Cup in November.
“The compliance investigation, requested by RLWC, involved interviews with a number of eyewitnesses as well as those directly involved. The investigator found a non-England player to have behaved inappropriately and an England player to have acted in self-defence. No members of the England squad were at fault. The RFL Board has determined that no further action should be taken – and these findings have been shared with all relevant Rugby League bodies.”
The latest update prior to today had been the news that no official police report was filed and therefore NRL insiders were reporting that no punishment would be handed down.
Whatever happened still remains unclear given that a lot of the reports are alleged however the incident came at the team hotel following England’s crushing defeat to Samoa 27-26 during a time when emotions would clearly be high.
