Jai Arrow makes emotional cameo for Souths at Cbus Super Stadium three months after MND diagnosis
Jai Arrow made a brief appearance for the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday during their NRL regular-season clash with the Gold Coast Titans, three months after his motor neurone disease diagnosis. The cameo was emotionally charged and saw Arrow bring up his 99th game for the club as he prepares to reach 100 next week.
Arrow was diagnosed with motor neurone disease earlier this year and immediately announced his retirement from rugby league, leaving him on 98 appearances for South Sydney. The NRL granted special dispensation after the Rabbitohs requested a one-off rule change so he could run onto the pitch at the start of the club’s final two regular-season games while still mobile enough to walk. The arrangement was designed to allow Arrow to reach 100 club appearances across the Titans match and next week’s fixture.
Dressed in full kit, the 31-year-old led the Rabbitohs out to the strains of You’ll Never Walk Alone and received a returning hero’s welcome from both sets of fans at Cbus Super Stadium. He left the field as planned before the first kick and took his place on the interchange bench without having any active involvement in play.
South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett, who also coached Arrow for a spell at the Broncos, said before kick-off that his player was “very nervous” but delighted to be a part of the playing group. “He turns up to train every day and, obviously he can’t train with us now, but the friendship, the mateship is there and he needs us and we need him,” Bennett told Fox Sports. Bennett added, “I got on the bus and he’s sitting right up the front. He was the first one on the bus. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was just running on, he’s not staying on,” Bennett joked. “So when I go back in the room, I’ll just tell him, mate, you’ve got to come off when the whistle goes, OK?”
The NRL cleared Arrow to make cameo appearances in Souths’ round 26 and 27 matches — against the Titans and next week’s final regular-season game against the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium — after the Rabbitohs requested the change. The Titans, the Roosters and the players’ union RLPA all gave their blessing, and the league allowed Souths to name Arrow as an extra player on the team list and have an extra substitution.
Arrow is a 12-game Queensland State of Origin player who moved to the Gold Coast as a young boy and later appeared 56 times for the Titans before switching to South Sydney. Many of his friends and family attended Saturday’s match. Since his diagnosis in May, when he said his “life changed forever”, there has been an outpouring of support from the rugby league community, with the Stand With Jai fundraising campaign led by the NRL raising over $1m and a “biggest birthday party in the world” held for him in July; various players have also followed tries with bow-and-arrow celebrations.
Arrow is one of around 2,750 people living with MND in Australia; the progressive neurological condition damages the nerves controlling voluntary muscle movement, is life-threatening and there is no known cure. He will join the 100 club next week against the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium under the special dispensation granted by the NRL.