{"id":795778,"date":"2026-07-12T16:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795778\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T16:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:10:30","slug":"powerful-scenes-as-world-record-broken-for-jai-arrow-ahead-of-south-sydneys-clash-with-newcastle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795778\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerful scenes as world record broken for Jai Arrow ahead of South Sydney\u2019s clash with Newcastle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jai Arrow<\/a> says he will fight motor neurone disease until he has nothing left to give, as NRL fans close in on a world record celebrating the retired forward\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n

The NRL estimates around $1 million has been raised for Arrow since May, when a motor neurone disease (MND) diagnosis forced the South Sydney star to hang up the boots.<\/p>\n

His 31st birthday coinciding with Sunday\u2019s clash between Souths and Newcastle, Arrow was thrown the \u201cworld\u2019s biggest birthday party\u201d by the NRL.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Queenslander Arrow was on hand, in the same week as he married long-term partner Berina<\/a> and attended Wednesday night\u2019s State of Origin decider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly can\u2019t thank the NRL and South Sydney enough for everything they have done,\u201d Arrow said after the Rabbitohs\u2019 26-24 win.<\/p>\n

Speaking of his battle with the insidious MND, Arrow pledged to \u201cfight, and continue until I have no more left in me\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI refuse to give up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor anyone out there with MND, you\u2019re not alone and I am with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SouthSouth Sydney and Newcastle\u2019s match doubled as the \u2018world\u2019s biggest birthday party\u2019 for Jai Arrow. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

Hundreds of fans queued up in party hats waiting for Accor Stadium\u2019s gates to open at 12.30pm, while others secured theirs on entry.<\/p>\n

The league will submit footage to the Guinness Book of World Records for assessment, but are confident of having broken the record for largest gathering of people wearing party hats.<\/p>\n

Set last year at Ohio State University, the standing record is 1,924 people, and the NRL printed around 10,000 hats to distribute for Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s game-day raffle was pledged to Arrow and his family, with the visiting Knights making a donation as well.<\/p>\n

The Wiggles performed live entertainment at halftime, when officials rolled out a giant 120kg birthday cake in the shape of Arrow\u2019s old Souths jersey.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister and lifelong Rabbitohs fan Anthony Albanese was on hand as the cake was cut and \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019 was sung.<\/p>\n

\"JaiJai Arrow celebrates his birthday with wife Berina Colakovic, daughter Ayla Rosa Arrow along with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, Chairman of the ARLC, Peter V\u2019Landys and The Wiggles. Credit: MARK EVANS\/AAPIMAGE<\/p>\n

But the most jubilant scenes were saved for after the Rabbitohs\u2019 upset win, with the crowd of 30,113 permitted onto the field to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Souths chief executive Blake Solly and Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V\u2019landys presented Arrow with his birthday present – a commemorative framed jersey.<\/p>\n

Arrow thanked the crowd after the presentation, receiving rapturous applause.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a magnificent crowd \u2014 generous,\u201d said Souths coach Wayne Bennett.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just met the Wiggles in there (the dressing rooms). I\u2019ve listened to a lot of their songs through my children. I wanted to sing a couple to them but they weren\u2019t really interested in that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lovely, people have put themselves out, done special things for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jai Arrow marries long-time partner in secret ceremony<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Stirring scenes as Jai Arrow rings the bell on emotional night<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jai Arrow says he will fight motor neurone disease until he has nothing left to give, as NRL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,1625,761,762,4495,158,4439,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-795778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lifestyle","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-newcastle-knights","tag-nrl","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}