NRL footballer Jack de Belin started to take sex by force before his friend Callan Sinclair decided to join in the rape of a 19-year-old woman, the men's retrial has heard.
De Belin, 30, and Sinclair, 23, have pleaded not guilty to five charges of aggravated sexual assault in an apartment after meeting the teenager on a Wollongong dancefloor in December 2018.
"Mr de Belin was, having got the complainant back to the unit, determined to have sex with her ... and was not going to take no for an answer," crown prosecutor David Scully told the jury on Wednesday.
Both men had been hoping for a consensual threesome but there had been a "fundamental disconnect" between their wants and hers.
"Mr de Belin started to take sex by force and Mr Sinclair saw that and decided to join in," Mr Scully said.
The Sydney jury, empanelled on Wednesday, has been told it will hear recordings of evidence given in the first trial, which did not conclude.
The woman met the men on the dancefloor of Wollongong bar Mr Crown, having already known Sinclair from a sports team years earlier.
CCTV footage from the night in question would show "a lot of dancing", de Belin and the woman embracing on the dancefloor and her kissing Sinclair in the bar.
"The kiss was not, on the crown case, a passionate one - it was a fun kiss and they laughed about it afterwards," Mr Scully said.
When leaving the bar, the woman had been under the impression the trio were headed to the nearby Fever Nightclub.
But the St George Illawarra forward led them to a taxi rank, confusing the woman, who was told by the footballer "it would be faster" and told by Sinclair to not be a "wuss".
"She trusted the accused," Mr Scully said.
She was instead taken to the unit, which she entered to use the bathroom.
While there, de Belin undid her top, pushed her onto the bed and said "show me your rack", the Crown alleges.
When she said "no" and "stop" to that and a further request from Sinclair, the footballer forced himself on her.
"The complainant felt numb inside," Mr Scully said.
The Crown anticipates the main issue in the trial will be whether the woman had consented.
The jury is due to hear recorded phone calls and messages involving Sinclair and de Belin in which the men say the 19-year-old consented.
Each man's lawyers are due to make open statement later on Wednesday.
The trial is expected to finish within three weeks but the jury has been asked to remain available until May 7.
