{"id":326249,"date":"2023-08-26T08:12:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T08:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=326249"},"modified":"2023-08-26T14:01:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T14:01:22","slug":"papenhuyzen-opens-up-on-emotional-nrl-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=326249","title":{"rendered":"Papenhuyzen opens up on emotional NRL return"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Ryan Papenhuyzen<\/a> ran onto AAMI Park on the hour mark of the Storm<\/a>'s clash against the Titans<\/a>, the crowd let out a roar the man himself said rivalled that of the Matildas<\/a> World Cup<\/a> clash against Canada a fortnight earlier.<\/p>\n

It might on paper look like a quiet return \u2013 he made five runs for 38 metres from his 20 minutes of game time \u2013 but it marked the end of a 405-day stint away from the NRL after he shattered his right kneecap in 10 places in July last year.<\/p>\n

His first touch came not long later \u2013 a quick run from dummy-half in the lead up to Christian Welch's try.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE:<\/strong> NRL round 26 Saturday\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Gallen rinses Bunnies coaches over 'really poor' antics<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ricciardo hospitalised in crushing F1 blow<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Papenhuyzen said he couldn't believe the crowd's reaction when he ran out onto the field.<\/p>\n

"I came to watch a few of the Matildas games here and that was loud, but that was outstanding," he told Fox Sports after the match.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

"Massive thank you to everyone who came out today. It was a pretty tight contest there for a long time and I went on and had to do my job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It's just great to be back. It's a good feeling."<\/p>\n

Papenhuyzen's return to first grade came through the Sunshine Coast Falcons \u2013 the Storm's Queensland Cup feeder club.<\/p>\n

But he said there were times throughout his recovery he felt a return was getting further and further away.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"It had its setbacks with it. As I got closer towards it, it got further away and I just had to hang in there.<\/p>\n

"It's definitely worth it, I'll tell you that much. But all those dark days that you have, (to be) thrown back out here on AAMI Park with a team like this, I'm just lucky to be picked and lucky I'm back to play.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Having a few games in Queensland Cup really helped me with the nerves, knowing my body could hold up for it.<\/p>\n

\"Hughes<\/p>\n

"I felt really good. Really calm. I guess the boys made my job easy during the week and I just had to go out there and run hard and make my tackles \u2013 probably a couple flew off there, but getting back into it, I feel really good.<\/p>\n

"I came on and the Titans boys were all tired,\u00a0 so I just had to work my magic there and try get my hands on the footy and get those nerves out of the way."<\/p>\n

With Nick Meaney at fullback throughout 2023, the Storm have still been a force to be reckoned with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It's something Papenhuyzen is acutely aware of.<\/p>\n

"Sitting on the bench is different \u2013 I haven't done that since the start of my career, but I'll do whatever I can for this team," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's a special team again this year, and (Meaney) has done an outstanding job all year, so I don't wanna upset the apple cart."<\/p>\n

Cameron Munster said Papenhuyzen would likely play a similar role next week, and into the finals.<\/p>\n

He compared the cheer when Papenhuyzen returned to the field to that a popstar might receive.<\/p>\n

"The atmosphere was massive \u2013 the big cheer and roar, I honestly thought someone really important like Elton John or something was here," he told Fox Sports.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

"We obviously wanted to come here for Paps, he wanted to blow the cobwebs out \u2013 I think he might have been a little nervous on a couple of tackles and a couple of runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I'm sure he'll be in the side for the next couple of weeks and we hope to get them back on his feet and playing the type of footy we know he can play.<\/p>\n

"It will be a little bit hard for him in the middle, but he can play that utility role. Meansy is going really well, we don't want to put too much pressure on Paps, he's only first game back and we all know he can play and what kind of style he can play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"But, we're gonna slowly bring him into it. He's going to be an X-factor for us hopefully as we go through the finals and, he's gonna be electric.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully we can get him some early ball and some wide spaces around the ruck."<\/p>\n

The win over the Titans locked in a top-four finish for the Melbourne side. Their regular season will end in a blockbuster against the Broncos next Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Ryan Papenhuyzen ran onto AAMI Park on the hour mark of the Storm's clash against the Titans, the crowd let out a roar the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326255,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326249\/revisions\/326255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/326251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}