Huge brawl breaks out less than two minutes into second Ashes Test

The second rugby league Ashes Test has got off to a feisty start with two players sin binned and a huge brawl just minutes into the game.

One of the big feelings from the first Test at Wembley was that England didn’t take it to Australia enough but they certainly did in the opening exchanges at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and rightly so given the fact they need to win to save the Ashes.

Australia got a penalty early on as England were deemed to lay on in the ruck too long with the game clearly officiated differently from last week when England’s Liam Moore took charge.

Grant Atkins of Australia made it clear that he wanted a faster ruck and he also made it clear that he wasn’t going to take any nonsense as he sent two players to the sin bin early on.

It all started when Jez Litten tackled Harry Grant with the Australia number nine pulling his England counterpart to the ground by the collar, something that led to an all-in brawl.

Two sin binned inside minutes of second rugby league Ashes Test

As Litten and Grant went at it on the floor with Grant the clear instigator, bodies piled in and two of them were giant winger Dom Young for England and Australia’s prop Tino Fa’asuameleaui.

Commentator James Graham disagreed with the call, arguing that both men should have been allowed to stay on the pitch.

The pair had exchanged plenty of pushes and shoves with collar grabs but it seemed that no punches were thrown, meaning Grant Atkins only sent the pair to the sin bin, as opposed to sending them off.

Australia were still handed the penalty which Nathan Cleary slotted over but England have since levelled the score up with Harry Smith hitting back with a penalty.

Both teams are down to 12 with the game being much faster in the early exchanges on account of Atkins’ refereeing style.

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