Allan Langer (left) and Andrew Ettingshausen during filming of the Tina Turner promotional video for the NSWRL
Allan Langer (Broncos) and Steve Linnane (Newcastle) won man of the match awards in a New South Wales Winfield Cup Rugby League double header played at Salter Oval Bundaberg.
Centre, Gene Miles captained the Broncos in their 24-10 defeat of North Sydney, with Langer his able deputy. Linnane was inspirational in the Knights’ thrilling 22-20 victory over Balmain Tigers.
Toowoomba, Lismore and Port Macquarie were the other centres assigned round 1 games in the knockout competition with Tamworth and Dubbo to host the quarter finals and Orange and Wagga the semis. Broken Hill’s Rugby League Park was the venue for the final, which was to be played on March 10 with $200,000 prizemoney for the winning side.
Newcastle, coached by former Australian utility back, Allan McMahon, had won the fourth annual Nissan Sevens at Parramatta Stadium on February 11 with a heart stopping win over St George in the final in front of a crowd of 29,293 with Knights’ forward Marc Glanville the player of the series.
The Knights headed to Queensland a few days later and proved just as adept at the 13-man game with Queenslander Michael Hagan captaining the side from five eighth. Balmain, coached by former Wallaby coach, Allan Jones led 12-4 at halftime.
Brisbane led 16-10 against Norths at the interval and did not concede a point after the break with centre Steve Renouf finishing with two tries. Norths were captained by Bundaberg product Tony Rea with another ‘Bundy boy’, 1986 Kangaroo Les Kiss on the wing. Another former Kangaroo, Steve Martin was Norths’ coach with Wayne Bennett in his fourth season in charge of the Broncos.
I covered the double header for The Courier-Mail and sat in the stands alongside ABC Managing Director, David Hill who was also Norths’ chairman. That night I enjoyed a few ales with one of Bundaberg’s favourite sons, Noel Cavanagh, who represented Australia in 1965 from Brisbane Brothers. Noel played for North Sydney and also had stint with Bradford Northern in England. He returned to Bundaberg as captain-coach in 1973.
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