Jarryd Hayne

Jarryd Hayne

Hayne while playing for Parramatta in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Jarryd Lee Hayne
Nickname	Hayne Train, Hayne Plane, Haynesy and Jazzer
Born	15 February 1988 (1988-02-15) Minto, Australia
Height	188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	102 kg (16 st 1 lb)
Playing information
Position	Utility Back
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2006–	Parramatta Eels	128	67	2	2	274
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2007–2009, 2011	City Origin	4	3	0	0	12
2007–2011	New South Wales	13	7	0	0	28
2007–2010	Australia	6	2	0	0	8
2008	Fiji	4	3	0	0	12
2010	NRL All Stars	1	0	0	0	0
As of 10
Source: NRL Stats, Rugby League Project

Jarryd Lee Hayne (born 15 February 1988) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the Parramatta Eels of the NRL. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian, Fiji international representative winger and fullback, he has played his entire NRL career to date with Parramatta, with whom he got to the 2009 Telstra Premiership Grand Final. Also in 2009 he won the Dally M Medal for the NRL's player of the year. Hayne is the son of former first grader Manoa Thompson and Jodie Hayne.

NRL career

Jarryd Hayne began playing junior league for Cambelltown City, East Cambelltown and Cabramatta, at the age of six. Hayne went to school at John Warby Public School, Leumeah High and Westfields Sports High School. Hayne won the 100-metre hurdles at the schoolboy nationals without even training and he made his first grade debut with the Eels on 19 May 2006 against the Penrith Panthers at CUA Stadium. He quickly made an impression on the competition scoring 17 tries within 16 games in his debut season. This tally included a personal best of four tries against the Newcastle Knights in a 46–12 win to Parramatta. His excellent try scoring ability saw him rewarded with the 2006 Dally M 'Rookie of the Year' award and a spot on the Kangaroos Squad. Hayne continued to impress in his second season with his talent, in which he secured representative berths in City vs Country Origin, State of Origin and played a Test match for the Kangaroos. He started the season at centre but later moved to fullback due to an injury to Luke Burt and scored 12 tries, including the winning try against the New Zealand Warriors in the First Qualifying Final of the 2007 NRL Finals series.

Parramatta announced Hayne had signed with the club for a $2M extension.

On 15 September, he was officially announced as Rugby Leagues fastest man, after becoming the highest placed league player in the Gatorade Bolt.

2009 Rugby League Season

At the start of the 2009 season, Hayne played at five-eighth with very limited success. Hayne was moved back to his preferred position of fullback just before the round 8 clash with the North Queensland Cowboys. His return to form at fullback prompted Dean Ritchie of Daily Telegraph to call Jarryd Hayne "the most gifted Parramatta player since the great Brett Kenny."

Hayne's performances for Parramatta stepped up to another level as the 2009 season progressed. His influence on the game from fullback was lauded by many pundits as the Eels made a late season surge. He was described as "the best player in any code of football in Australia" by Phil Gould.

Hayne has won the Dally M Medals for Player of the Year and Fullback of the Year respectively. He became one of the youngest winners of the prestigious award and only the second fullback in history to be crowned Dally M Player of the Year.

Hayne escaped a grade two charge after coming into contact with the head of Bryson Goodwin sliding in with his knees to stop Goodwin in the act of scoring a try during the Preliminary Final against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. Hayne pleaded guilty to a grade one charge, however a grade two charge would have resulted in Hayne missing the 2009 NRL Grand Final.

At the start of November 2009 while on tour with the Kangaroos, Hayne was left out as one of the six nominees for the Golden Boot Award (Best Rugby League Player in the World) despite him being the year's Dally M Medal winner, Dally M fullback of the year, NSW State of Origin player of the series, International Federation player of the year, Parramatta player of the season and Rugby League Week player of the year in 2009. That award went to Melbourne Storm Greg Inglis.

Diving accusations

Following Parramatta's close victory against Brisbane in July 2007, Hayne was accused of diving to impede Brisbane's momentum after a heavy hit from Sam Thaiday. Then Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett said "You talk about ethics in our sport. You talk about not laying on the ground" and then claimed Hayne should be cited for "bringing the game into disrepute." Hayne denied that he dived to deliberately impede Brisbane's momentum and claimed that he was genuinely hurt after the collision with Thaiday.

In the 2007 Grand Final qualifier, Hayne was again accused of diving when he stayed down and received a penalty for a high shot. Players also accused Hayne of winking after the incident, Clint Newton saying "To lay down like he did and then get up and wink, I don't think that's in the spirit of the game. Straight after he got up, he winked at Dallas Johnson – facing us." Hayne denied the accusations, saying "I don't engage in that shit, I just score tries and make people happy".

Representative career

On the back of his Dally M Award winning season, and a good showing in the annual City vs Country match, Hayne was selected on the wing for New South Wales in game I of the 2007 State of Origin series. Hayne's representative career got off to an excellent start as he scored a magnificent solo try right on half-time from a Brent Tate kick. Despite this, Hayne threw a panicked pass that he thought to be a 40/20 which was intercepted by Darren Lockyer and led to an opposition try. The selectors however, kept their faith in Hayne and were rewarded when he returned a solid showing in game II, and scored a vital try in the third. Due to his prolific performances in the Origin series, Hayne was awarded the Brad Fittler Medal for NSW player of the series and ultimately rewarded later in the year with the inclusion the Australian Test Squad in 2007. He debuted on the wing for Australia, scoring a solo try in Australia's record 58–0 defeat of New Zealand.

In August 2008, Hayne was named in the preliminary 46-man Kangaroos squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. Hayne was also named in the Prime Minister's XIII, scoring 2 tries against Papua New Guinea.

Despite playing for Australia the previous year, Hayne was named in the Fiji squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. During the Rugby League World Cup while playing for Fiji Hayne played an incredibly exciting brand of football at fullback, scoring 2 tries in the first clash against France. Hayne had an average of 4 linebreaks a game in his World Cup games for Fiji.^{[citation needed]}

Hayne was selected for City in the City vs Country match on 8 May 2009.

Hayne's performances for NSW during the 2009 series in a losing side were spectacular. In game one he was denied a controversial try by the video referee who ruled that Hayne touched the sideline with his boot, while saving NSW both in attack and defence with several important plays. In game 2 he carried NSW with a series of brilliant plays including a 90 metre "12 pointer" intercept and another try from dummy half. Former Queensland players acknowledged that Hayne would be the only NSW player to make the QLD side. He later credited his remarkable form to discipline learned during his time with Fiji in the 2008 World Cup.

He was named Fiji player of the year for 2009.

Hayne was named and played for the NSW Blues in all three losing matches in the 2010 State of Origins against the Queensland Maroons.

In 2011, Hayne was controversially not named in the NSW Blues side for Game One, which they lost. However, he returned to the side in Game Two, helping them win 18 - 8. He also played in the deciding Game 3. Despite losing, Hayne made two line breaks, and scored one try. He also had the second highest run metres for NSW (156m) behind Paul Gallen (160m). He is likely to have played on the wing for Australia following the 2011 season, but was not selected due to injury.

2009 NRL Grand Final

Jarryd Hayne's performance for the Parramatta Eels in the 2009 grand final against the Melbourne Storm was largely viewed in Australian and New Zealand media as disappointing. Journalist Josh Massoud, writing for The Daily Telegraph wrote, "For reasons only known to the God he recently discovered, Eels superstar Hayne failed to contest the ball." Prior to the game the media focused much on Hayne's match-up with the incumbent Australian, Queensland and Melbourne Storm fullback Billy Slater which was touted as "one of the most anticipated individual match-ups in Grand Final history". Phil Gould said " Hayne was just shut out of the game, his performance wasn't actually that bad". It is generally conceived that Slater outplayed Hayne in the grand final, with the Storm fullback named as the Clive Churchill medallist.

Honours

Individual

• 2006: Dally M Rookie of the Year
• 2007: Dally M Winger of the Year
• 2009: Dally M Fullback of the Year
• 2009: Dally M Player of the Year
• 2009: RLIF International Player of the Year

Parramatta Eels

• 2009: Grand Finalist

Representative

• 2007: Australian Kangaroos Squad
• 2008: Prime Minister's XIII Squad
• 2008: Fiji Bati World Cup Squad
• 2009: Australian Kangaroos Squad

External links

• Parramatta Eels profile
• Players to watch – Jarryd Hayne (Fiji)