Internet sensation IShowSpeed trains alongside NRL club with brutally hilarious results

Ben Olawumi
IShowSpeed

Internet sensation IShowSpeed is interviewed by Sky Sports

Internet sensation IShowSpeed recently spent some time training with NRL outfit New Zealand Warriors, and the results – as you might expect – were brutally hilarious.

Speed – whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr – is currently on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, documenting his time in the Southern Hemisphere on his YouTube channel, which has over three billion views and more than 33 million subscribers.

The American has trained with numerous sporting figures over the last week or so, including popular UFC and NBA stars as well as Australian Football League (AFL) side GWS Giants.

And late last week, it was rugby league’s turn as the 19-year-old dropped into a training session with the Warriors, currently in pre-season ahead of the 2025 campaign Down Under.

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Internet sensation IShowSpeed trains alongside NRL club with brutally hilarious results

Taking part in a range of drills, the teenager – whose online streams can attract a viewership of over a million – was first taught the basics of the game and then caught some high bombs as well as running it in at both players and coaches.

Where those tasks were concerned, there were mixed results, but the pièce de résistance of the session came when he was asked to tackle Dallin Watene-Zelezniak as the winger went in to score a try in the corner.

Watene-Zelezniak has over 100 tries to his name in the NRL, and as Speed made his lunge to try and prevent him crossing the whitewash, the Kiwi completed an acrobatic leap over him to dot the ball down.

Sparking a comedic reaction from the Warriors’ squad, Speed shouted: “You can’t do that! You ran by the sideline. I didn’t know you could do that!”

A snippet of the session can be seen in the video below, posted on X by @thenrlroast…

Please be aware that the video contains an expletive.

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NRL Dallin Watene-Zelezniak

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