June 25: One Immortal stars for Australia; another for NSW
On this day in rugby league history, the seventh Immortal helped down great Britain in the '70s while the eighth starred in a NSW Origin series-clincher.
1943
Future Rabbitohs and Roosters premiership-winner Elwyn Walters is born in far-northern NSW. The no-nonsense hooker played 20 Tests for Australia and won three premierships at Redfern in 1967, 1968 and 1970 before switching to Bondi in 1974 and immediately claiming two more titles.
1956
Future Dragons, Kangaroos and Blues front rower Craig Young is born in Wollongong. Young had a dream start to his career, debuting in 1977 and taking out the Clive Churchill Medal in a grand final win over the Eels. In 2019 he was inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame.
Emotional Craig Young accepts his jacket
1977
Rugby league's seventh Immortal, Arthur Beetson, leads Australia to a 13-12 victory over Great Britain in the World Cup final at the SCG.
2003
New South Wales secure the State of Origin series with a commanding 27-4 defeat of Queensland at the then-Telstra Stadium. Andrew Johns put in a man-of-the-match effort to inspire the Blues to victory in front of almost 80,000 fans with his Newcastle teammates Timana Tahu, Ben Kennedy and Matt Gidley scoring four of the team's five tries.
2005
Just two years later, an injured Johns was largely unavailable as his beloved Knights slumped to a 0-13 start to the season before breaking through for their first win of the season on June 25, beating Penrith 28-24 after trailing 14-0 at half-time.
2020
Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary defies a facial infection that hampered his eyesight to inspire the Panthers to a 20-12 victory over South Sydney. Immortal Andrew Johns described Cleary’s performance as "the best game I have seen Nathan play".
This article contains information from the official records of NRL historian David Middleton.
