Jeremy Latimore abandoned his car and hitched two rides to make it to a game on time

Jeremy Latimore abandoned his car and hitched a ride via car and motorbike to make it to WIN Stadium in time to play for the Dragons against North Queensland.

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St George Illawarra’s Jeremy Latimore was forced to hitch two rides to WIN Stadium after a serious motor vehicle accident shut down the M1 Princes Hwy, Princess Hwy into Wollongong.

The utility ditched his car on the side of the road in Towradgi before flagging down a motorist who agreed to help get him to Wollongong for the 6pm kick-off against North Queensland.

“I missed the turn off to Towradgi, once I got passed there the traffic completely stopped. I moved about 400 metres in a half an hour and I still had 1.2 kilometres before I could get off the highway so I thought I’m going to bite the bullet here,” Latimore said.

“I left my car on the side of the highway and hurdled the median strip went on the other side of the road towards Sydney and started hitchhiking.”

But the motorist’s generosity wasn’t enough to help get Latimore where he needed to be and the forward had to hatch a new plan.

“This lad Brett picked me up and it was still banked up massively and I said, if see a motorbike I’m going to ask them to give me a ride because it was 4.40pm at this point,” Latimore revealed.

Latimore had to improvise following the traffic jam. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images.

“A lad rode past and I said ‘brother can you please drop me [off at WIN Stadium]’ and he looked at me… he wasn’t that keen but then he said ‘anything for the Dragons, get on the back.’”

Latimore’s teammates and coach could barely believe their eyes when they saw the 32-year old on the back of the motorbike riding past them on his way to the Stadium.

“[Matt] Duff and Mary [Paul McGregor] saw me on the back of the motorbike. They saw me riding past the Novotel,” Latimore said.

Latimore will plan a special thank you for the two men who helped him make his 50th NRL game for the Dragons on time.

LISTEN! In a special one-on-one interview Matty sits down with Sam Burgess to talk through the highs and lows of his career, his desire to play at Manly and his venture into rugby union.

“I got both their numbers, Brett the first guy and Ricardo my best mate on the motorbike. Because I’m a stickler for routine I’ll have to organise the same thing for every game,” he said.

Coach Paul McGregor admitted the traffic drama played a role in his side’s 22-14 win over the Cowboys.

“A lot of the players arrived late, including the coach. Dufty got here only 20 minutes before warm-up so that was a distraction. We probably started that way as well.

“Our start to the game wasn’t as good as we wanted, we were down 10-nill. But showed some grit to score 22 unanswered points,” he said after the match.