‘Nasty’ scenes spark gross halftime search as Raider Danny Levi breaks jaw

A Raiders star has lasted just two minutes against the Sharks after a horror injury that left him bleeding heavily from the mouth.

The blood was pouring from his mouth. Photo: Fox Sports

The Canberra Raiders have claimed its first win of the season with a 24-20 win over the Cronulla Sharks but it’s come at a nasty cost.

Raiders hooker Danny Levi played just two minutes after reeling out of a tackle early in the clash.

The Raiders led 12-10 at the break but it was early scenes which saw Levi bleeding heavily from his mount after his side’s first defensive set.

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Levi was left in backplay with his mouth agape as the trainer rushed to his side.

“He’s got a real problem here Levi,” Warren Smith said in Fox League commentary.

Cooper Cronk added: “He looked at the touchline straight away as he came reeling out of the contest. He looks in all sorts of trouble Danny Levi.”

The trainers had to hold his mouth as he came off the field and the fears were confirmed almost immediately that it was a suspected broken jaw.

The blood was pouring from his mouth. Photo: Fox Sports

The NRL official was searching for teeth. Photo: Fox Sports

The injury appeared to happen when Levi caught the shoulder of Sharks secondrower Teig Wilton and Fox sideline reporter Matt Russell said he believed it could be broken in two places.

Greg Alexander said it was “pretty nasty” and Fox Sports showed vision of officials looking for his teeth on the turf.

“He just dropped into the tackle and a bit of footwork there from Teig Wilton and the shoulder looks like it has collected Levi on the jaw,” Fox League’s Greg Alexander said.

“He didn’t look good leaving the ground, certainly not good.”

Smith said the officials would be back out on the field at fulltime if the search was fruitless.

“We had NRL officials out there at the break looking for at least one tooth out there on the turf at GIO Stadium,” Smith said.

“They might be out there again at fulltime if they didn’t locate it, looked to be the case that they came up empty.”

But other than the sickening injury, the Raiders were on fire as the side looks for its first win of the season.

Leading 12-10 at halftime, the Raiders made it 24-10 in the 53rd minute after forward Corey Horsburgh completed a rare double.

A 55th minute Jesse Ramien try and Briton Nikora score in the 71st made it tight but it was enough for the Riaders to claim its first points of the season.