NRL star Jack de Belin has been stood down following a decision made by the ARL and NRL boss Todd Greenberg.

Two former Canterbury Bulldogs stars have opened up on the infamous gang rape scandal that engulfed the club in 2004 and the devastating toll it took on them and their families.

In the February of that year, a 20-year-old woman filed a complaint with Coffs Harbour police alleging she’d been gang raped by a number of the Bulldogs players at a resort after a pre-season trial.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, club legends Hazem El Masri and Andrew Ryan revealed how damaging the allegations were for everyone at the club.

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“A lot of decent people, family people, lost their jobs,” El Masri said.

“It was devastating for the players, the staff, everyone.

“I remember being in an airport with the team and everyone was looked at differently — a look of, ‘Hang on a sec, is that one of them, could that be one of the guilty guys?’

“Our family suffered. My wife was pregnant at the time, and some of the questions she was asked about it, it was a very stressful time.

“There were cameras everywhere you went. If you smiled, if you didn’t smile, everything was scrutinised. If you looked the wrong way, smiled the wrong way — you wouldn’t wish it upon your worst enemy.”

One of the lead detectives on the case, Glen Pearce, also told the Daily Mail the woman’s allegations “didn’t stack up within 48”, and two months later, police announced they would not charge any players after the DPP found insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Ryan, who skippered the club to their memorable grand final win later that year, recalled the public slurs the players had to put up with.

“I remember a girl told me at a pub, ‘F***k off, you rapist, get out of here’,’’ Ryan said.

“Everywhere we turned it was in your face, non-stop.

“I’ve got four young kids and what they’ll find if they Google my name, yeah, it’s a factor … it’s a worry.”

The former Bulldogs players’ comments come after the NRL announced on Friday a new ‘no-fault stand down’ policy for players facing serious criminal charges.

Under the new rules, players facing charges which carry a maximum jail term of 11 years or more would be stood down under a no-fault policy which Beattie stressed didn’t apply a presumption of guilt.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg also has the discretion to stand down players facing other serious charges, including violence against women and children.

However, the rules immediately met resistance from the players’ union, which said it would back any member who wanted to consider their legal options.

The new policy meant that St George Illawarra’s Jack de Belin has been stood down indefinitely while he faces a charge of aggravated sexual assault.

Manly’s Dylan Walker has also been stood down while he faces a domestic violence charge against his partner who has since retracted her initial statements made to police.

Both players have plead not guilty to the charges.

Retired NRL superstar Johnathan Thurston, who was at the club before he joined North Queensland, also spoke about the Bulldogs allegations in a 60 Minutes interview late last year.

“We believe, still to this day, we had done nothing wrong and it was just an unfortunate event that had occurred,” Thurston said.

“Even though they’re serious allegations, everyone involved at the club knew that we were not guilty of anything.

“It was tough for everyone because we were gagged and we couldn’t give our side of the story.”