Latest news with #KennedyCherrington
ABC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Rugby League 26 video game launch hit by glitches, server issues, Xbox failure
State of Origin star Kennedy Cherrington is among scores of fans left disappointed by the launch of the long-awaited Rugby League 26 video game. The game was released on Thursday and social media immediately blew up with fans reporting bugs and errors. Gamers noticed everything from strangely inflated player ratings — rarely selected Knights halfback Jackson Hastings is an 89 and retired forward Tom Eisenhuth tops the Dragons at 90 — to glitches within the gameplay, to stadiums being placed in the wrong cities. Xbox users were also locked out by server errors for about 11 hours after release, while many players in the game are wearing the wrong numbers, kicking with the wrong foot, or listed at the wrong positions. A large swathe of fans have called the game simply a re-skinned version of Rugby League Live 4, which was released in 2017 by the same studio, Big Ant. Content creator and Penrith Panthers superfan Ryan Flaxman called on the developers to "do better", labelling the game a "remaster" of its eight-year-old predecessor, rather than anything new. "When I buy a $100 game, I am expecting — maybe not FIFA levels, I know I'm not expecting top quality — but I'm expecting something new," he posted on social media. "And yes, we've got Pro Team, but 90 per cent of the gameplay is a copy and paste of Rugby League Live 4. "And I could live with that [if] the gameplay was working, but nothing was working. I could live with the re-use of animations, the shit commentary, the game itself, but the fact that it just doesn't work, come on man." ABC Sport is live blogging every round of the AFL and NRL seasons in 2025. Parramatta and NSW State of Origin star Kennedy Cherrington was among the most prominent voices criticising the game. "This might seem petty, but as a player that features in the new RL26 game, I'm not happy," Cherrington wrote on social media. "Maybe we should just be grateful that we're in the game but overall I know the fans aren't happy too. From the facial scans to the player ratings & even the gameplay nahhh." Cherrington said she couldn't play herself at her usual position of lock, nor men's star Mitchell Moses at halfback, and Eels teammate Tyla Amiatu was another of the players listed out of position, with the prop labelled an 89-rated fullback. "So bad," Cherrington wrote, adding it is "not hard to ask what position the players play". Cherrington posted on Instagram as she repeatedly tried and failed to sign in to the game, calling for more consultation with players. "I reckon in the future we make sure we work together to make sure a half-finished game like this never gets released again lol," she posted on her stories, tagging the Rugby League Players' Association. Melbourne-based game developer Big Ant Studios and its founder and chief executive, Ross Symons, have been doing damage control on social media since the launch. Symons apologised to fans who "spent good miney" (sic), some as much as $125, on the game. Big Ant worked with Microsoft to get the game up and running on Xbox, but issues persisted, and the studio said employees were working "around the clock" to fix other bugs. "We know today has not gone as smoothly as it should have, and we will compensate all #RugbyLeague26 purchasers with some free #ProTeam credit," Big Ant tweeted. "There has been overwhelming demand that also may have caused service issues, and for that we cannot apologise enough." Symons said they sold six times more copies of Rugby League 26 than other game this year, and the "servers are not coping". The "Rugby League 26 Bugs and Issues Megathread" on the Big Ant website's forum had received 137 messages in 24 hours from midday Saturday. Some have been fixed, while frustrated players wait for others to be rectified.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
NRLW's growing maturity shows in players unafraid to defy expectations
The Roosters' Jasmine Strange is chatting candidly on a podcast clip posted to TikTok about her period. 'Every fourth game we play, we are on our period,' she tells the shocked host of Burro's Backyard, who confesses that he thought 'maybe the sport chicks don't get them'. Kennedy Cherrington and her sister Rueben open up on their own podcast on everything from Māori culture and the Treaty of Waitangi, to their thoughts on the Run it Straight challenge, to the grief of losing their brother. Millie Elliott regularly speaks out on disability inclusion, body image and pay parity for women's sport in the media and on her podcast with fellow player Keeley Davis. With the NRLW poised for its eighth season, there is a maturity to the competition that has stretched beyond the field and taken root in the hearts and minds of the players. As the competition grows – from four teams in its inaugural season in 2018 to 12 teams in 2025 – so too do the platforms of the players. That they are using these platforms to educate men about the realities of menstruation in elite sport and to share important messages about culture and grief, shows the confidence and security that they feel in their roles – both as players and as advocates for women's rugby league and women's sport more broadly. Much like rugby league itself, there is an unashamedly in-your-face attitude about the NRLW players, which defies expectations that continue to plague many other women's sports – that the players are polite, grateful and 'ladylike'. But there is nothing polite about rugby league – it is a sport born from mud and blood, that invokes the smells of sweat and Deep Heat. A game of the people that has never set much store by manners. As the crowds continue to build, with the first game of the women's State of Origin series this year delivering yet another record crowd, the attitudes of the NRLW players appear to be working for them. This season will also feature the very first Magic Round for the competition, held in the rugby league heartland of Newcastle, which will offer further growth and recognition for the players. Centralising all the teams in one location for the round will naturally draw more media, providing the players more chances to showcase their personalities as well as their skills, and take opportunities in interviews to speak their minds and highlight issues that are important to them. It is not just its players, but also in the competition itself where rugby league continues to go its own way. While the AFLW and WBBL have shied away from double headers in their respective men's competitions, the NRLW has seen them as opportunities, scheduling 33 double headers in the 2025 season – 18 of which will feature the same home and away teams in the men's and women's fixtures. Sign up to Australia Sport Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk after newsletter promotion Both approaches have benefits, but the NRL's method aligns more closely with a one-club mentality, where fans of the men's team can be drawn to arrive at the ground earlier, get more value for money by seeing an extra game and understand the excitement of women's rugby league where they may never have chosen to attend a game otherwise. This is particularly important because rugby league fans are usually born, not made. While cricket fans in NSW and Victoria choose a BBL club to support and other states have one team each to default to, NRL fandom is a multigenerational love affair, entangled in family lore and deeply woven into the souls of those who fill the stands at each game. Bringing more fans into the women's game requires harnessing that passion and pulling it over – making these fans understand that this team belongs to them as well. Without double headers, the women's teams can be left stranded and locked out from a core that isn't truly aware of what it is are missing. With the 12-team era of the NRLW about to begin, the maturity of the competition is something worth getting excited about. It is one where players understand their value and feel confident and secure in speaking out about what matters to them. While they are not yet paid comparably to their male counterparts – and indeed their pay also falls short of many other women's sporting codes in Australia – the sustainable growth of the competition and the way the women's teams have been integrated into the rugby league ecosystem provides hope for the future. With this maturity comes a great deal of strength and the makings of an incredible legacy.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Eels star Cherrington to miss start of NRLW season
Kennedy Cherrington will miss at least the first three weeks of the NRLW season with the knee injury she suffered in the third State of Origin match. She could be joined on the sidelines by captain Mahalia Murphy, who is racing to recover from a minor hamstring injury in time for the season opener against Cronulla. Parramatta had initially hoped NSW forward Cherrington may recover from her posterior cruciate ligament injury in time for the opener on July 3. But she is now tracking to miss up to a third of the regular season with the injury that prevented her from playing the second half of NSW's game-three loss in Newcastle last month. It's a blow for Cherrington, who missed the end of last season with a separate knee issue. "It's tough for Kennedy but it'll be good to get her for the back half of the season," said coach Steve Georgallis. "We're hoping she'll be back for round four or round five at the latest." Eels captain for a second straight season, Murphy is hoping to return from a hamstring injury in time to face the Sharks. "Mahalia's just got a little niggle," Georgallis said. "We're hoping she should be back for round one but if we feel like she's not ready then we're not going to push her." The news is less rosy for Eels forward Boss Kapua, who fractured her fibula in an opposed session and will miss the opening weeks of the competition. "She's tough, she walked off the field and she just said, 'I'm a bit sore here'," Georgallis said. "We were glad it wasn't syndesmosis because syndesmosis can be like 12 (weeks), three months. She'll be three or four weeks. She might even be back before Kennedy."
