{"id":879818,"date":"2026-09-04T14:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879818\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:52:16","slug":"nrl-2026-trent-robinson-defends-spencer-leniu-in-press-conference-video-sydney-roosters-vs-south-sydney-rabbitohs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879818\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Trent Robinson defends Spencer Leniu in press conference, video, Sydney Roosters vs South Sydney Rabbitohs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trent Robinson defended Spencer Leniu after the Roosters firebrand was blasted for a \u201cstupid\u201d brain explosion in Friday night\u2019s game against the Rabbitohs<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Leniu was penalised against the run of play in the 24th minute after throwing the ball away, having previously not followed Gee\u2019s multiple attempts to get him to play the ball.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Instead, the former NSW Blues front rower only had eyes on Keaon Koloamatangi as he locked in a tense stare-off with his Rabbitohs rival.<\/p>\n

The two exchanged words as Gee implored Leniu to play the ball six times, telling him the Roosters had been awarded a six-again after a ruck infringement from Koloamatangi.<\/p>\n

While that should have incentivised Leniu to drop the run-in with Koloamatangi, he instead went as far as to throw the ball away even after both teams had been separated. <\/p>\n

Premiership-winning Roosters halfback Cooper Cronk called it a \u201cstupid\u201d act from Leniu, while Panthers legend Greg Alexander declared the former Penrith prop had \u201ccompletely lost his head\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great before Spencer threw the ball away when he had it,\u201d Alexander added on Fox League\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are moments where it\u2019s fun and it\u2019s great viewing but if you\u2019re the coach and your player throws the ball away when you\u2019re trying to work it out of trouble. What are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

‘STUPID’ Leniu slammed after square up | 00:30<\/p>\n

It would have been particularly frustrating for coach Trent Robinson given the Roosters were severely undermanned for Friday\u2019s game, having rested nine players for the match-up.<\/p>\n

That left the Tricolours devoid of experience and leadership, with the hope that Leniu would step up to help fill that void.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously been given a leadership goal without so many guys in the side and completely lost it,\u201d Michael Ennis added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was personal for there and a good battle and then completely spilled over when he threw the ball away.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, instead of publicly criticising Leniu for his actions, Robinson admitted that while his star front rower \u201cwent over\u201d the line he wants him to continue playing with the same fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went over it. I want him to play with his natural spirit and just stay under the line,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spoke about that and I\u2019ll encourage him to be himself and take on the opposition. He\u2019s got enough experience that he just should have regulated that and played the ball. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut after that, what did he do wrong? He creates an atmosphere when he\u2019s in that mode. Other than that, I would have liked it to be beneficial for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘A moment no one will ever forget’ | 01:20<\/p>\n

Leniu was substituted off shortly after the brain snap and didn\u2019t play another minute in the game, although Robinson suggested that wasn\u2019t a case of him sending a message and rather just part of the team\u2019s broader resting strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give as much time to those other guys,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up rotating one forward out there, and I thought they did an amazing job. To see Hayden and Aston out there in their first game and they just played long minutes and kept going and going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leniu\u2019s future had been the subject of speculation earlier in the year<\/a> after the representative forward played just 14 minutes in a game against Brisbane. <\/p>\n

Reports at the time claimed Leniu could be set for an early exit from the club, although the Roosters front rower rubbished that talk in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo all the Roosters fans, I\u2019m here to stay. We\u2019ve got a good thing going,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trent Robinson defended Spencer Leniu after the Roosters firebrand was blasted for a \u201cstupid\u201d brain explosion in Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-879818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}