Tears flowed as Jai Arrow made his 100th Rabbitohs appearance, with his Souths teammates helping crush the reserve team of their arch rivals, the Roosters.
Arrow choked back tears when he was hugged by Wayne Bennett as the forward was given a hero’s reception at a sold out Sydney Football Stadium.
The 31-year-old father of one was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) this year and, until two weeks ago, was stranded on 98 NRL games for the Bunnies.
At Bennett’s initiative, the NRL allowed Souths an extra interchange against the Gold Coast last week for game number 99 and again on Friday against the Roosters.
“It was pretty emotional,” Cam Murray told Channel 9.
“I’m just so happy that everyone was able to get around him and he’s been able to feel all the love.
“I know he really appreciates it and we love to see it.
“We all love him and happy he was able to notch up 100 games.”
Arrow led his teammates out to the sound of the Gerry and the Pacemakers rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, with 14th Immortal and dual-club legend Ron Coote ringing the Rabbitohs’ bell.
The former Queensland State of Origin forward was given a guard of honour by more than 100 Souths old boys, including members of the 2021 grand final squad Arrow was a member of and his family, who all sobbed along with him and plenty of others in the stands.
“It was emotional,” Roosters captain Connor Watson said in his post-match press conference.
“It was very touching. Things like that are bigger than rugby league.”
Jai Arrow presented a stong face to the Rabbitohs crowd. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)
In the subsequent match, the Rabbitohs ran in 10 tries to pummel the Roosters 50-20, who had rested 10 of their star players with a top four spot secure.
But in completing the win, Souths have themselves earned a home finals spot, and will face Newcastle at either the Olympic Stadium or Sydney Football Stadium next week.
Campbell Graham scored twice for the Rabbitohs, who had nine different try scorers on the night, including Alex Johnston, who crossed for the 30th time this season.
Latrell Mitchell was one of them, scoring on his return to the starting line up while mixing his sublime skill with fearsome physicality, most notably when he flattened Toby Rodwell in the closing stages, standing over the stricken half like Mohammed Ali over Sonny Liston in their 1965 rematch.
If Mitchell’s performance was heartening — a poor 5/10 kicking rate aside — Roosters firebrand Spencer Leniu will have raised concerns from coach Trent Robinson in the first half.
Leniu squared up to Keaon Koloamatangi after the Rabbitohs prop smashed him in a tackle twice in the same set, the second time tossing the ball away and giving away a penalty.
Titans fume over questionable calls
Earlier, the Dolphins hung on to beat the Titans 24-20 on the Gold Coast.
It was the Dolphins’ seventh-consecutive win, but almost didn’t happen as the Titans fought back late on and were unfortunate not to come away with the win.
The Titans were left fuming when, while leading 14-0, they had Keano Kini sin-binned in the 23rd minute for a very soft push on Dolphins winger Tevita Naufahu.
Josh Hannay was fuming after that call, and a trio of others in the closing minutes, went against his side.
“I thought it was incredibly harsh and not long after that they get a try from a knock-on,” Hannay said.
“You talk about momentum swings — they don’t get much bigger than that. Moe [Moeaki Fotuaika] got smacked in the face at the end and ends up in the bin for retaliating.
“[Jamayne Isaako] throws a leg out to trip [AJ Brimson] in the act of a potential try-scoring play and it is just a penalty.
“It was probably more sin-binnable than Keano’s play.
“You stack all those things up and you lose by four points, you have got to be proud of your team’s effort.”
With AAP
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
Live updates: Souths vs Roosters
Time to say goodnight
Well, it’s been a big day.
Jai Arrow has played 100 NRL games for South Sydney.
The outpouring of support from the NRL community has been stunning.
As so many people have said, some things are bigger than rugby league.
This was one of those things.
We’ll be back tomorrow, I hope you’ll join us then.
Jai Arrow moment ‘very touching’: Watson
Connor Watson is speaking about what it felt like to be out there today during the Jai Arrow moment pre-game.
“It was emotional,” Watson says.
“It was very touching. Things like that are bigger than rugby league.
“It’s definitely an experience to be part of something so moving.
“The start was very passionate, and it was great to be out there.”
Robinson happy with kids display despite defeat
Here’s Roosters coach Trent Robinson.
“Those two tries to get back to 20-14 … I think we had an error off the kick off?” he says.
“I thought our effort was outstanding, I thought the boys worked really hard, they didn’t stop, but we had errors at a lot of different times.”
He says that he knows people will disagree with his decision to play the kids, but he knows that he got a lot out of it.
“I love the fact that they got to experience that. There’s a lot of future out there,” he says.
“I thought the experience that they got was great.”
He says that Spencer Leniu possibly “went over” the line at times, but he doesn’t want to curb his natural “spirit”.
“He’s got enough experience that he should have regulated it,” he says.
“He creates an atmosphere when he’s in that mode, aside from [the penalty] I would have liked it to be beneficial to us.”
Lots of love for Jai Arrow
Jai Arrow was getting plenty of love from rivals and teammates alike post-match.
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‘We all love him’: Cam Murray hails Jai Arrow
Cam Murray is speaking to Channel Nine after the match.
He’s happy with the win, it goes without saying: “It’s always good to win against the Roosters,” he says.
But the bigger thing was, as always, Jai Arrow.
“It was pretty emotional,” he says.
“I’m just so happy that everyone was able to get around him and he’s been able to feel all the love.
“I know he really appreciates it and we love to see it.
“We all love him and happy he was able to notch up 100 games.”
FT: Souths claim dominant victory
South Sydney have secured a home final, beating the Roosters reserves 50-20 after an emotional night when Jai Arrow was honoured for playing his 100th NRL game for the club.
The Roosters, secure inside the top four, made 10 changes from their first choice team for the match, and it looked like it was to be one way traffic at a sold out Sydney Football Stadium.
The Rabbitohs led 20-4 at half time and pushed that out to 24-4 10 minutes into the second period.
However, the Roosters then fought back with two tries in as many minutes to make things a little nervous for the Bunnies.
But Cody Walker scored to settle the Rabbitohs, who went on to score 10 tries in a dominant display.
Lachlan Hubner and De La Salle Va’a were both sin binned in the last 10 minutes of the game for a brawl on a night where emotions occasionally threatened to boil over.
And Latrell Mitchell was a tad lucky to get away with a monster shot on Toby Rodwell
which, had it been any higher, would have seen the Rabbitohs centre in deep trouble with the judiciary.
78′ Try Roosters
Rex Bassingthwaighte
does another Nawaqanitawase impression by getting onto the end of a cross field kick!
But my word he was given a free path by a pathetic effort from Latrell Mitchell.
Alex Johnston has laid into Mitchell there, which is a surprise in the sense that the game has well and truly gone but not a surprise in the lowering of defensive standards from the star centre.
He backed away and just let the youngster have a free run at the ball, which he accepted and scored.
Weird from Mitchell, just real odd.
It’s 50-20.
77′ Try Souths!
Brandon Smith crosses and the Rabbitohs have the half century!
Dummy half run from Smith, he tears out from behind the tackle and has powered into contact.
He does so well to get this ball down, staying up after missing one effort and then coming back and going again.
That’s a great individual score.
It’s 48-14 but the kick is almost dead in front – and not even Mitchell’s wayward boot of the evening will miss this.
It’s 50-14.
Call this a pummelling.
77′ MITCHELL SMASHES RODWELL!
Oh my word what a risk!
Latrell Mitchell has absolutely smashed Toby Rodwell!
He has folded him like an envelope and stood over him like Ali over Liston in 1965.
If Mitchell has strayed a touch high here then he’ll be rubbed out for finals – but he’s got away with that. A centimetre higher and he would have been sent off.
But we should give him credit for making a hard but fair tackle.
He has flattened him. My word.
73′ Roosters and Rabbitohs to play final 7 minutes a man down
De La Salle Va’a and Lachlan Hubner have both been sin binned.
Hubner for sparking the brawl, Va’a for carrying on with it.
12 vs 12 to end the game.
72′ BIG BLUE!
IT’S ON IN THE CORNER!
Mitchell crashes over in the corner, but there are a few question marks I have about the try.
Spencer Leniu picked up the ball and ran away with it, but he was charged down by a shoulder charge from Lachlan Hubner.
And then it was on!
The try has been confirmed!
That’s incredible. Mitchell stole the ball in a strip where there were three players in the tackle at least, then may well have fumbled it over the line.
OK.
The try stands.
The kick is woeful even by the standards of the night, so it stays 44-14.
67′ Try Rabbitohs
Campbell Graham with a brilliant touch down in the corner!
That’s a brilliant finish!
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The kick through was a beauty by Jamie Humphreys, perfectly weighted and it’s a great finish in the corner.
The score is 40-14 and that’s where it will stay, as Mitchell wildly misses the kick and he’s annoyed with himself as a result.
63′ PENALTY TRY SOUTHS!
South Sydney gets a penalty try!
Latrell Mitchell came through and looked like he got the ball down.
But they decided that he didn’t get downward pressure.
That’s OK though, because Adam Elliott was clearly being held back by Tommy Talau and the bunker says that’s a penalty try!
Mitchell was behind Elliott when the contact was made but still got to the ball, so the rationale is that Elliott would have got there.
The kick from in front is good.
It’s 36-14 and the brief concern among Souths fans has thoroughly dissipated.
I’m glad it’s not just me
Rex Bassingthwaighte looks more like Mark Nawaqanitawase than Mark Nawaqanitawase does!
– Mike
I mean, have you ever seen them in the same team together?
60′ Penalty Souths
Nasty tackle that one, Benaiah Ioelu picked up Cam Murray and dumped him on his back.
Was he taken beyond the horizontal? Looked close.
Players threaten to come back in, the aggression of earlier in the game rousing itself from its slumber for a moment, but it’s defused quickly enough.
59′ Another player goes down
Euan Aitkin is down now.
His shoulder may have popped out.
Tommy Talau
put a shot on him and Aitkin is in agony!
He is having to come off.
Good news is that Adam Elliot passed his HIA so he’s OK to come back on.
57′ Souths score!
Cometh the Hour!
Cody Walker does it all himself!
An error from Toby Rodwell as the Roosters looked to make it a triple strike back gave the Rabbitohs the ball in an attacking position on the field.
The Roosters, bubble well and truly pricked, have to get back into defensive mode and can’t do it quickly enough, Cody Walker bashing his way over from close range.
The kick is good and it’s 30-14.
54′ Try Roosters!
Oh my!
Game well and truly on!
A brilliant break by Benaiah Ioelu
out of dummy half puts giant prop/concreter Taylor Losalu
through!
He finds Egan Butcher in support and he crosses to score!
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Two tries in two minutes and the Roosters are well and truly back in this game!
The Rabbitohs have taken their foot off the gas and are being made to pay for it.
The kick is missed – that might be a sucker punch – and it’s 24-14.
51′ The Roosters score out of nothing!
Great work from the Roosters!
The move started on half way and they shifted it to the right side.
Rex Bassingthwaighte was on the end of the pass on the wing and he showed a clean pair of heels to Jye Gray.
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Now you don’t have to squint that much at all to see the likeness to Mark Nawaqanitawase, the hairline and style is eerie, and he has the speed of the giant former Wallaby too.
The 19-year-old still has a bit of growing to to though, to be fair.
The kick is good and it’s 24-10!
dan