 During the winter of 1942, Lindwall helped the St. George Dragons rugby league team to reach the grand final for the second consecutive year and also finished the season as the League's top point-scorer. Lindwall and his brother Jack, who played on the wing, scored all of the team's points in the grand final, Jack scoring a try and Ray kicking three goals. However they were denied by a last-minute penalty goal and St. George were defeated by Canterbury-Bankstown 11 – 9. All the while, the Japanese were inching ever closer to Australia. Malaya had fallen and the northern Australian city of Darwin had been the subject of Japanese air raids.
