Former NRL player Arana Taumata says he leapt into action to save a young woman in distress on a popular walking track in Brisbane.
The two-time New Zealand Māori representative said he was on a lunchtime run at Mount Coot-Tha on Friday afternoon when he came across a woman on the ground.
Taumata took to social media to talk about the incident.
"She was on the ground, just dazed.. and I was like 's*** are you alright?'... I thought she'd slipped over," Taumata said.
Wellington-born Taumata said he then realised it was something more sinister.
"She was saying, 'no, someone pushed me, someone had me on the ground, someone had me on the ground,'" he said.
He said the woman in her 30s said she had been confronted by a man dressed in black, who had knocked her to the ground and pinned her down.
In the video posted to social media, Taumata said once the woman was being looked after he went into "hunting mode".
"Where is this dog? Where is he?".
In a later interview with 7News, Taumata said the woman told him the guy ran away when Taumata was approaching.
"For me... it was like instinct, you're going to help someone if they're on the ground."
The woman suffered minor injuries.
A Queensland Police spokesperson told 7News that as of Sunday afternoon, no one had been arrested and investigations were ongoing.
However, police aren't linking the attack to reports of a man trying to sexually assault another woman at a different Mount Coot-Tha walking track last month.
