Conceived by Preston Campbell and launched on the second anniversary of the official Apology to the Stolen Generations, the first Indigenous-All Stars Clash was a momentous affair. Campbell captained the team, Johnathan Thurston won the inaugural Preston Campbell Medal, the Indigenous team was chosen by popular vote, and the public also got to select the All Stars players – one from each of the sixteen teams along with the Australian and New Zealand captains and vice captains, bringing each squad to twenty.

There were a significant number of withdrawals and substitutions in the buildup to the match, as injury saw Blake Ferguson replace Justin Hodges, Sam Burgess replace Dave Taylor, Dave Shillington replace Alan Tongue, Greg Bird replace Daine Laurie, Beau Champion replace Greg Inglis, Ben Jones replace PJ Marsh, Brett Finch replace Billy Slater and Ty Williams replace Jamal Idris. Gareth Ellis was also out due to the birth of his first child, so the Wests Tigers representative in the All Stars was Robbie Farah, who would have a cracking back forty.

Wayne Bennett was the coach for the All Stars and Neil Henry was at the helm for the Indigenous players, as they took the park with a logo designed by ex-player Sid Domic, who also put together Thurston and Jamie Soward’s head gear. Beyond its historic significance the game was also a testing-ground for a proposed NRL rule that never really took off – the option to swap a conversion attempt for a second try attempt. Neither team would nab one tonight and so at three tries apiece, Thurston’s two conversions garnered the Indigenous victory.

Thurston also fielded the kick off, lobbing it across for George Rose to get the first touch – and from there the Indigenous side reached full intensity almost immediately. Two minutes in they swept right through Carl Webb and Thurston for Scott Prince to grubber into the right corner, where Wendell Sailor scooped it off the turf, easily got on the outside of Manu Vatuvei and crossed over for the first try of the All Stars format in his farewell appearance in first grade, using the corner post as didgeridoo to celebrate – an iconic opener for the Indigenous men.

Yet the All Stars hit back ten minutes later with a deft right sweep of their own, as Darren Lockyer made a searching run to the ten and flicked it back deep for Jarryd Hayne to dodge over a Nathan Merritt ankle tap, shrug off Thurston, leap through a Travis Waddell low shot and finally barge into Sam Thaiday, for a clash of the titans that lasted six metres – three before the try line, three beyond it – before the big Bronco finally managed to hold him at the death, Corey Patterson surging in to add his heft to the tackle as well.

Lockyer’s vision on the right was a riposte of sorts to the Webb-Thurston linkup, so the Indigenous side needed a big individual play to restore their energy. Thirty minutes in they got it, when Campbell intercepted a Lockyer ball from dummy half, got past Hayne, got past Dave Shillington and exploded into space. Jarryd reached him by the forty but he pivoted off the right boot, crossed halfway and eluded the Parramatta fullback a third time to pick up another ten before Michael Jennings brought him down thirty-six out from the All Stars line.

With all that adrenalin in the tank it felt almost inevitable when Ben Jones dove over a moment later from dummy half. Anthony Watmough stuck out a boot to try and deflect his passage but it was fruitless and so the Indigenous side headed to the sheds on top. That said, the All Stars initially looked set to control the third quarter, as Farah and Benji shaped a virtual nonstop period of attacking brilliance for their men. They were unlucky not to get more points out of it, in what became the game’s key testament to the resilience of the Indigenous side.

Farah came alive at the 52^nd minute, poking his nose through a hole, turning around in the tackle and then second phasing it out to Shillington, who headed right and sent it through Benji for Jenko to pivot back in field, dance past a couple of tackles and arrive fifteen out by the time Tom Learoyd-Lahrs brought him down. The All Stars remained focused on the right edge, where Smith had his most focused sequence of the game, lobbing it up to Tupou and then dancing around to take the drop-back and grubber it deep into the right corner.

Morris added the final touch, surging up from behind to pop it down with three Indigenous defenders converging on him. A mere three minutes later, Farah almost delivered a run to rival Campbell’s intercept, dummying about fifteen times as he worked his way from right to left inside the twenty, dishevelling and eventually dismantling the Indigenous defence as he made his way over the chalk. It was one of the premium attacking plays of the game and yet Jharal Yow Yeh responded with arguably the greatest defensive effort of the evening as well.

In the maelstrom of it all, you might have assumed that Yow Yeh had sandwiched Farah with another player but extraordinarily, the Brisbane winger had played the role of two defenders at once, sliding in between the footy and the ground and then twisting over on top to hold it above the turf. Farah’s run should have been a consolidation point for the All Stars and so he had another crack a minute later, drifting towards the left edge but off a shorter run this time, before trying to grubber it through, as players from both sides scrambled for possession.

Yet Yow Yeh was motivated by the intensity of that last sequence as well, and not only came up with the footy but would have been set for a breakaway try if not for a damaging and decisive tackle from Matt Cooper. A minute later the match reached peak adrenalin, as Farah made it a quartet of restlessly brilliant plays, with a right shift to Jenko, copping some heavy contact from Joel Thompson in the process. Jennings edged past Thurston, edged past Jones and was deep in the red zone by the time that Merritt downed him with a deft ankle tap.

Even then he got the offload back to Tupou, only for the recently minted Shark to put it down for Williams to scoop up. In the end, it took the other Tiger on the park to cap off this searching All Stars period. At the end of the next Indigenous set Thurston ferried the footy across the field, as if channelling Farah’s supple dummy-and-run, and opted for a chip on play three, only for the Steeden to ricochet off Tupou, who made up for his error then and there by catching it and popping it over to Benji, who exploded into space, and headed for the left corner.

Yow Yeh, the defensive champion of the last fifteen minutes, was unable to get hands to him and a minute later, the All Stars surge reached its apex, with Farah again organising the play, shifting it out for Burgess to straighten and dump it back for Brett Finch, who dummied a couple of times and put it on a string for Jenko to elude Soward, beat Campbell to the chalk, and get his try in the corner after all. They would be the last points that the All Stars put on the board , as things quietened down for the next ten minutes, both sides looking for a chance.

At the 73^rd minute the Indigenous side got their shot, poetically enough off a cough-up from Farah, the man who had done so much to rally the troops in the third quarter, in the face of a punishing hit from Thaiday. Thurston gathered it up and exploded off the right boot, absorbing the brunt of a Luke Bailey tackle but still managing to lob the harbour bridge ball across to Soward, who delivered a superb sequel to Campbell’s mad dash in the first act, while pairing it with Benji’s untouchability by remaining a metre and a half ahead of Jenko all the way.

It was a rousing riposte from the Indigenous men, who nearly nabbed one more just before the siren, when Prince took a crack at field goal and sprayed it too far, leaving room for Joel Thompson to chase it down, gather it up in both hands, and shape a sharp trajectory for scoring, only to barge into Israel Folau at the critical point in his passage. It was less a tackle from Izzy than superb positional instinct, since the impact of Thompson’s run was enough to force the footy free, no matter how desperately he tried to pat it down again after the event.

With that error the All Stars had eight seconds of attack, and then a further play after the siren, thanks to a late tackle on Burgess just before he booted through the final kick. Finch sent it on to Watmough, who took a shot at the line and failed to break through, meaning that Yow Yeh ended up with the last touch. It had been a terrific contest, the close scoreline a relief after so many top-tier players had pulled out due to injury, and with Thurston taking home the inaugural Preston Campbell medal, a new era was etched in Australian rugby league.