Roosters star ruled out for Rabbitohs derby after e-bike crash

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Roosters centre Billy Smith has been ruled out of Friday’s clash against arch rivals South Sydney with concussion after being involved in an e-bike incident on Thursday afternoon.

Sources not authorised to speak on the matter told this masthead Smith was e-biking near the Moore Park precinct, doubling with teammate Egan Butcher, when they were involved in an accident.

It occurred on the footpath on Moore Park Road, just outside the front doors of Rugby Australia’s headquarters.

While Butcher has walked away relatively unscathed, a witness said Smith suffered a head injury. He was ruled out of the match after being assessed by the club doctor on Thursday afternoon. Given the NRL mandates a minimum 11-day stand-down period for players diagnosed with a concussion, Smith is likely to also miss next week’s clash with Penrith.

It continues a luckless run for the 26-year-old, who has managed 46 games during an injury-interrupted career that started in 2019.

“I’m completely fine, I’m all good,” Smith said when contacted by this masthead before he was ruled out.

Billy Smith on an e-bike, with Egan Butcher, in a photo posted by the Roosters earlier this week.

Roosters players regularly move between their training sessions at Kippax Lake Oval and club facilities inside Allianz Stadium using e-bikes and scooters. Members of Trent Robinson’s side were spotted returning to their club headquarters on foot on Thursday afternoon after completing their pre-game captain’s run.

Under NRL rules, the Roosters’ initial 22-man squad for Friday’s local derby must be trimmed to 19 at 8pm on Thursday.

Speaking before news of Smith’s e-bike accident emerged, Robinson side-stepped the crowd debate as “nothing to do with me - that’s for the NRL and the stadium”.

But he conceded the Roosters right-edge, where Daly Cherry-Evans was exposed last week, would be targeted by South Sydney’s star trio of Cody Walker, Latrell Mitchell and David Fifita, with Johnston patrolling the left wing outside them.

“We don’t want him to score any tries. For me, hopefully the following week he’ll break that record. Alex is a really good person and a good man and a great footy player and he deserves everything he gets,” Robinson said.

“So I’m really happy for him and what he’s done in the game and look forward to celebrating, hopefully on a television from a distance.”

Siua Wong and Toia present a new combination either side of Cherry-Evans as veteran Nat Butcher drops back to the bench.

The Roosters also need a stark improvement in their discipline after conceding 11 penalties and six set-restarts against the Warriors, albeit with infringements up in round one after the NRL widened the remit of “six agains”.

“I think [the referees] are working themselves out at the moment,” Robinson said.

“Obviously [there are] some different interpretations, they’re changing quite late [in the pre-season] around where the ‘six agains’ starts.

“We see every single season it starts to get back to what style do the referees want for this year as well.

“I don’t think we just take it on round one, over the next couple of weeks we’ll start to see that. We just have to be more disciplined, that’s all we can control from that.”