Wipe out gladiator Dylan Napa at your peril

Dylan Napa is the best thing to have happened to the NRL this week. Heaven help us if the gladiators are wiped out.

Sydney Roosters prop Dylan Napa, front, at training this week

Dylan Napa is the best thing to have happened to the NRL this week. Heaven help us if the gladi­ators are wiped out. Curtis Scott and Api Koroisau were hot-­heated and cowardly in throwing punches but Napa was a reminder of the warrior heartbeat of the code at its best. He was putting the fear of God into the Broncos’ forwards. Monstering them. It momentarily went wrong and Korbin Sims’ jaw was broken. Unfair. Cruel. But the message from the NRL should’ve been this — shoosh, it happens.

Napa wanted to hammer Sims. It’s his job. He did not want a head clash any more than Sims did. He did not lash out with a wildly swinging arm or cocked elbow. It was a thunderous and committed tackle that was he was entitled to attempt. Complications arose. It’s inevitable in one of the world’s greatest and most brutal collision sports.

When Napa volunteered yesterday to speak publicly about it, bravo — the 194cm, 109kg redhead looked and sounded like a heavyweight boxer. The speech was slow, worryingly slurred and deliberate. He was sorry for Sims’s injury but unapologetic about the act that caused it.

“I just wanted to give clarity on the incident with Korbin,” Napa said. “I wanted to make it known that I didn’t lead intentionally with the head. I’ve got so much love for the game that I would never try to put it in jeopardy. I’ve been playing with and against Korbin since I was 15 so to think I would intentionally go out and ­intentionally break his jaw with my head is totally false. It’s a bad rap. I completely understand ­people may think I would have, but I definitely didn’t.”

Napa was attempting a left shoulder tackle. Sims sidestepped to Napa’s right at the last second. Napa was unaware of the injury. When he saw Sims had dropped the ball, he celebrated in an act that was misinterpreted as revelling in Sims being hurt.

“I was pretty excited that we got the ball back with less than six minutes to go in a game that was tight at 22-all. I definitely wasn’t showboating about a head clash.

“It wasn’t until after that I saw we’d collided heads. I’ve been criticised for showboating but I thought I’d made a big play.”

He telephoned Sims at the weekend. “I’m mates with Korbin,” he said. “I hope he makes a quick recovery. I’ve already said what I have to say to him, over the phone. That was a private conversation between myself and him. I was apologetic but it’s a completely private conversation.”

Napa had been accused by NRL boss Todd Greenberg and Broncos coach Wayne Bennett of an act that warranted suspension but yesterday he protested his innocence in a quietly admirable fashion.

“He (Bennett) has probably been in the game longer than anyone so he has every right to say what he wants,” Napa said.

“I’ve had plenty of times when I’ve run the ball and collided heads with people.

“The game we play is a contact sport. It’s going to happen. It’s not the first time and it’s probably not going to be the last. I do take responsibility as the attacker but I can’t help accidents. I’m sure it’s going to happen to me again.

“Front-rowers running at each other, there’s going to be some stuff that happens. I would never wish that stuff on anyone. I would never do it intentionally. But it’s just what happens.”

The risk for Napa, the Sydney Roosters and Queensland’s State of Origin side is that he becomes gun shy after his sin-binning, the revelation of Sims’s injury and the drama of being accused of a flying headbutt. You would hope that against the Gold Coast on Saturday night, and against NSW in Origin I, Napa does exactly what he did against the Broncos. Rip in. Blokes like him are the lifeblood of the sport.

“How many head clashes have we seen where no one’s been sent off?” he said. “If my head wasn’t down, I probably would have been split open myself. Probably the hardest part of my head hit the softest part of his.

“Obviously I can’t be getting sent off with six minutes to go in a game that’s drawn. I felt like I let my team down on the weekend and potentially lost the game for us. But I will keep doing what I’ve been doing.”