Leeds Rhinos scrum-half Aidan Sezer has backed Elliott Whitehead’s stumping celebration in the NRL and said: “It adds to the theatre!” England second-row Whitehead came in for criticism after replicating Jonny Bairstow’s controversial Ashes stumping after his Canberra side scored against St George-Illawarra on Friday.
The Bradford-born forward, 33, played the part of his fellow Yorkshireman as jubilant Raiders team-mates surrounded him to re-enact the dismissal. Some people have said Whitehead is taunting his own country as England continue to struggle in the series.
But Aussie star Sezer, who played alongside him at Canberra before moving to Super League, insisted: “I don’t know what all the conjecture’s about. It’s fine. And even the initial incident. Jonny tried to do it in the innings before and then the Aussies did it, it came off and everyone is up in arms.
“Smelly (Whitehead) is a proud Englishman. It’s tongue-in-cheek. It’s all for a good cause back home raising money for charity. It’s good to see the humorous side of things. I know the English weren’t too happy but if the result went in their favour I don't think they’d be so upset. It’s a good little rivalry in the Ashes and I guess Smelly doing that just adds to the theatre. It takes the edge off a little.”
Read more: Jackson Hastings' ominous message to Warrington Wolves' rivals after Lachlan Fitzgibbon prediction
Sezer, 32, hopes to inspire Leeds to a third successive win when they visit Salford today who are four points ahead of them in the battle for top-six spots. Rhinos were superb in last week’s 22-6 victory at high-flying Warrintgon to suggest they could make another late charge to Old Trafford like last year.
Sezer - who has tickets for the final day of the third Test at Rhinos’ Headingley home tomorrow - said: “That’s been the narrative for most of the year: build some consistency. When we’ve had a decent performance we haven’t strung together the way we know we should and the way we know we can play. We need to do it at Salford.”
