Peats takes a swipe at ‘king’ Hayne

RUGBY LEAGUE: NSW State of Origin hooker Nathan Peats has spoken of his tense relationship with Parramatta star Jarryd Hayne, claiming he “didn’t care who he was”.

It stemmed from Hayne being “king” at Parramatta, according to Peats.

Peats and Hayne were teammates at Parramatta and Gold Coast, but the Titans hooker revealed yesterday he often clashed with Hayne.

“We used to clash all the time because when I got to Parramatta, he was the king around then,” Peats said.

“I sort of had the attitude of ‘I really don’t care who you are’.

“We used to clash at times a fair bit.

“I just wish he’d played a little bit better footy up here (at Gold Coast) and enjoyed it a bit more because it didn’t look like he was too happy here last year.

“I wish he had enjoyed it more and could have left on a better note with the club and Titans fans.”

Peats and Hayne became closer as time went by, Peats harbouring a deep respect for Hayne.

“He is a good fella. There was a lot of scrutiny about his decision to leave and go to Parramatta,” Peats said.

“It’s not like he’s leaving a $500,000 deal to a $1.5m deal. He’s going from $1.2m to $500,000. He’s sacrificing over half a million dollars to go back to where he wants to be.”

While Hayne has returned to the Eels, Peats admitted he was “pissed off” after being dumped by Parramatta during the club’s salary cap crisis.

Peats left Parramatta in May, 2016 and immediately joined Gold Coast.

“I was pissed off, I busted my arse for that club, hurt myself playing for the boys, why would you want to get rid of me, why couldn’t you get rid of two other blokes?” he said.

“At the time I was filthy. “Now looking back, it was a selfish thing to say. They had to get under the salary cap for that season. I went to training that next day and Brad (Arthur, coach) had a chat to me.”

Parramatta officials preferred not comment yesterday.