Ex-NRL player Matt Utai shot in alleged drive-by outside his Sydney home

SYDNEY (AP) — Ex-New Zealand international and National Rugby League premiership winner Matt Utai has undergone surgery after being shot during an alleged drive-by attack outside his home in southwestern Sydney, Australian media reported Tuesday.

Utai, a star of the Canterbury Bulldogs’ NRL grand final victory in 2004, remains in a hospital and New South Wales state police are investigating, Australian Associated Press reported.

“It’s a brazen ambush,” police superintendent Rodney Hart said. “We strongly believe that this is a targeted attack.

“Whether the victim was the intended target or it was somebody that he knows or associates with or is related to, will all form part of the investigation.”

Hart acknowledged media reporting of the incident but didn’t identify Utai by name, saying that a 44-year-old victim had been shot in the lower leg and in the upper shoulder, chest area and was stabilized on the scene by paramedics.

A vehicle suspected of being used in the attack was set ablaze in a nearby suburb.

Utai played international rugby league for New Zealand and Samoa, and played 167 games in Australia’s top-flight NRL between 2002 and 2013, initially for the Bulldogs and then for Wests Tigers.

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