Ryan James Has Broken Someone's Jaw and Back In Two Of His Last Three Starts In The NRL

Gold Coast Titans enforcer Ryan James has given new meaning to the term 'bone-crunching tackle.' The 121 kilo prop forward has been on a bone-crunching spree in his last three games in the National Rugby League, leaving a player with a broken jaw and another with a broken back in two seperate incidents.

His latest victim, Penrith prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard, was injured during Saturday night's thriller, which the Titans lost by a point. With his opponent being held on his feet by two teammates, James took a run-up and delivered a shoulder into the exposed back of Gillard breaking his L2 and L3 vertebrae, leaving the Panthers coaching staff incensed.

"I'd really like the NRL: to review it. I'm not happy with how Reg has ended up injured….He can't move. They had to stretcher him out of the sheds," Penrith Coach Anthony Griffin told the Daily Telegraph.

Gillard has been ruled out for the rest of the season with the injury while James, who was not cited for the hit, will be free to play in this week's do-or-die blockbuster with the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville.

It comes just two just two weeks after James broke the jaw of West Tigers star fullback, James Tedesco, with a high tackle. The sickening hit, in which James' right forearm smashes Tedesco's jaw as he's falling, was initially met with a grade-two careless high tackle charge carrying a one week suspension. James and his Titans legal team successfully had the charge downgraded clearing him to take the field the following week. The Tigers, minus Tedesco, would go onto lose that game in dramatic circumstances with Tedesco subsequently ruled out for the season with the injury.

The decision not to suspend James for either of the hits has polarised the rugby league community. Fellow enforcers Sam Thaiday (Brisbane Broncos) and Paul Gallen (Cronulla Sharks) agreed with the NRL match review committee that James had no case to answer for in the back-breaking hit on Gillard. While Brisbane and Queensland State Of Origin forward, Corey Parker said James should have been rubbed out for his role in breaking Tedesco's jaw.

"Decisions are made, based on what I was led to believe, the severity of the tackle."

"And he (James) has broken his jaw, regardless how it has happened.

"He's hit him with a closed fist, swinging arm that has since broken his jaw and he got one week," Parker told 2KY's Big Sports Breakfast, prior to the charge being downgraded.