Petrified Hayne speaks out
JARRYD Hayne remains traumatised by his dance with death, revealing he is haunted by fears of another attack following last weekend's nightclub shooting.
JARRYD Hayne remains traumatised by his dance with death, revealing he is haunted by fears of another attack following last weekend's nightclub shooting.
Offering The Sunday Telegraph a first-hand account of last week's drama, the Kangaroos star told how he fled Sydney for three days in the wake of one of the darkest moments in rugby league history.
"What if it happens next time and it does hit me? You don't get a second chance with bullets,'' Hayne said. "Even now, I'm at the point where I need to take a breath from it all ... I'm still on edge about the whole thing.
"Even when I'm travelling by myself in the car, I just don't feel right. I'm still looking around and checking myself. It was a gun shot, you know? Hopefully what's done is done. I've got absolutely no revenge in me.
"If they (the shooter) were looking to make a point, they've made it. I've learned a massive lesson.''
Contrary to more than 80 newspaper reports detailing the incident, Hayne wasn't a part of the group of players who attended the one-day final between India and Australia at the SCG on Sunday.
"I didn't start drinking till 11pm on Sunday night at a mate's farewell,'' Hayne said. "Because I played (a trial against the Roosters) the day before, I was tired so I slept the next day. So all up I had been out for five hours, not some big bender like everyone thinks.
"I got a call from a few of the boys and thought, why not, I've got Monday and Tuesday off training. I'm 20 years old, my body is in good enough condition to recover.''
The Sunday Telegraph has learned the shooting occurred around 4.20am on Monday after Hayne stepped in to defend drunken St George Illawarra skipper Mark Gasnier at a Kings Cross hotel.
Several punches were thrown at Hayne and Gasnier. Hayne's team-mates, Junior Paulo and Weller Hauraki, also stood by their mate. "Sometimes you've got to walk away and take your losses rather than try and fix stuff,'' Hayne said.
At the centre of a police investigation, Hayne said he was "restricted'' in his ability to answer some questions about the incident.
"It was crazy. There was this loud bang and I freaked out,'' Hayne said. "All of us were stunned by the noise and then we realised, 'hang on a sec, that was a gun shot'. I realised then and there that we've all got to wake up to ourselves.''
Hayne woke at 9am ... to a nightmare. Summoned to Kings Cross Police Station for questioning, he was engulfed by a media circus. A stop at a nearby petrol station to purchase an $11 pair of sunglasses allowed him to hide from view.
"I thought it was a bad dream, waking up ... it then turned to reality,'' Hayne said. "The whole day was something where you just want to fast-forward. You want to forget about it, want to move on, want to just play footy.
"I was absolutely rattled. I got some sunnies on the way and it was sort of like a mask. I was hiding under this mask as I was going through.
"I hadn't seen Weller or Junior since we split, so when I got in there, I took my sunnies off and I saw Weller and I almost had tears coming out of my eyes. We didn't know what to say to each other except something like, 'this isn't us'.''
With both Monday and Tuesday off training, Hayne returned to his Parramatta apartment following several hours of police questioning to pack his bags and get away. "I got home and I tried to sleep but I couldn't,'' he said.
"I said to my flatmate (Premier League player) Jimmy Grehan, 'listen, I've got to get out of here. I can't stay in Sydney. Let's go somewhere, I don't want to be around the boys, I don't want to be around nobody'.
"So we went down the coast to Wollongong. We stayed two nights at Jimmy's parents' house. That was the best that I'd felt all week. I was still scared but his parents were awesome, they relieved so much pressure.
"I don't know what would've happened had I stayed here (in Sydney). I know I wouldn't have slept.''
On Thursday, Hayne drove to the central Coast to spend the night at the home of Eels physical performance co-ordinator Hayden Knowles.
Hayne's relationship with his mother, Jodie, is extremely close. She raised him on her own in a housing commission place at Minto, in Sydney's western suburbs.
"It was hard when I went to see Mum (on Thursday),'' Hayne said. "She was pretty distressed, like any mum would be. But when I spoke to her, I made sure I was really calm and pretended like I wasn't worried and I wasn't scared, but really I was petrified. She didn't have to tell me anything I don't know. I know I have to pull my head in.''