1923 New South Wales Rugby League premiership final
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Premiership Final of the New South Wales Rugby League, Wednesday the 12th of September 1923.
Eastern Suburbs 15 (Harry Caples 2, Les Steel tries; Arthur Oxford 3 goals) defeated South Sydney 12 (Benny Wearing 2 tries; Benny Wearing 3 goals) at the Sydney Cricket Ground;Crowd 15,000; Referee Tom McMahon.
Easts kicked off in front of 15,000 spectors, Souths responded soon after with a try to Benny Wearing, the try was unconverted leaving Souths with a 3-0 lead, Easts responded with an unconverted try to Les Steel after some good lead up work from Easts captain Harry Caples. Both sides then traded penalty goals. The Tricolours took a 7-5 lead to the break following another goal to front-row forward Arthur Oxford.
After the break play flowed from end to end until, from a scrum win in Souths halfback, Johnstone, kicked over the defense, regathered, then found Wearing who scored under the posts, Wearing then converted his own try to giveSouths a 10-7 lead. The lead changed yet again when Caples took an intercept, kicked past the fullback and scored, Oxford converted to make it 12-10. A penalty goal to Benny Wearing soon after locked the scores up at 12 points all. With time almost up Caples scored out wide after some fine lead up work from Easts centre, Dawson.
The win gave Eastern Suburbs their first premiership in ten years. rugby league publication ' Rugby League News' referred to the match as "the most brilliant game of the season."
The line-ups that day were:- Eastern Suburbs; E. Rigney; Cyril Abotomey, J. Dawson, L. Steel, G. Agar; Harry Caples(c), S. Kaufmann; A. Oxford, J.Watkins, B. Ives, T. Molloy, H. Holmes W. Richards; Edward Connerton replaced an injured G. Agar. South Sydney; H. Hallet; B. Wearing, T Barry, V Lawrence, O Quinlivan; W Gillespie (c), A Johnstone; D Watson, P Murphy, P Horne, E Wilmot, A O'Connor, J Lawrence.
(Sources: History Of The NSW Rugby League Finals(Steve Haddan)).
