Former Wigan Warriors star 'embarrassed' after Las Vegas incident 'involving an inflatable baseball bat'

The 24-year-old, now with Canberra Raiders, is in 'Sin City' as part of the rugby league takeover next weekend.

Canberra face New Zealand Warriors, on the same bill that sees Wigan face Warrington Wolves - but the week has got off to the worst possible start PR-wise.

Smithies and team-mate Hudson Young became embroiled in fisticuffs after a mix-up at the Resorts World hotel left one of them without a room on the first night of the trip last Thursday.

It's understood one of the players refused to share rooms with the other, which caused the unsavoury incident.

Hotel security guards had to separate them before escorting them from the premises, although they were later allowed back in.

Police weren't called, but Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was left fuming by the incident..

'I have spoken to the players who are very embarrassed,' he said.

And the players were forced to face the media and publicly apologise for their actions.

“We came back after a night out on Thursday and there was an issue with the room,” said Young. “We’re not going to go into details of that. There was a scuffle in the elevator, nothing in the hallways. We came back as a team and one of the boys had got a toy baseball bat somewhere. That was mistaken as a weapon in the elevator but it played no role.

“I want to apologise for the actions. It wasn’t good enough. The NRL invests so much time and effort into this game. It’s such a great space to be a part of here in Vegas and a great spectacle.

“Things got a bit out of hand on Thursday night. I’m happy to move on. I’m embarrassed for myself, our team-mates and the NRL. We’ve dealt with it internally as a club. Sticky (Stuart) has been on the front foot. Everything has been dealt with.

“It was honestly nothing. He was at mine for Christmas and our partners are travelling America at the moment, so there’s no issues there. We’re so close as a team and me and Morgan are really good mates. Everyone knows that. We are strong.

"We’ve dealt with this and have moved on. I feel awful, especially for my family as well. It’s a massive thing for them coming over here and they have to deal with this as well."

Smithies, who hails from Halifax, came through the ranks at Wigan, and made more than a century of appearances for the Cherry and Whites before joining the Raiders at the beginning of last year.