Ashes 2023

Watch: ‘That’s a no ball’ – Australian NRL team recreate controversial Bairstow stumping with rehearsed mid-game try celebration

by Wisden Staff July 7, 2023 - 1:56pm 2 minute read

Watch: Having elicited nearly every opinion there can be in the cricketing ecosphere, the controversial Jonny Bairstow stumping is now seeping into other sports, with Australia’s National Rugby League players enacting their own version of the now-infamous event.

When Canberra Riders’ Jordan Rampanna opened his side’s account against St George Illawarra Dragons at the Wollongong Showground, the players decided to put on a little skit on live TV. In front of him was ‘batter’ Elliott Whitehead – incidentally also from Yorkshire, just like Jonny Bairstow, one of the lead characters in the original version. Zac Woolford took on the role Alex Carey from behind the ‘stumps’.

Rampanna hurled the Steeden rugby ball over Whitehead’s head, who purposely drifted out of his batting space, allowing Woolford to underarm the rugby onto his ‘stumps’, re-enacting Carey’s stumping of Bairstow from the Lord’s Test. Funnily enough, the Steeden didn’t actually hit the corner flag, serving as the ‘stump’, but don’t let that spoil the fun.