Dragons 26 defeat Rabbitohs 12
01 Jun 2008
The St George Illawarra Dragons have defeated the South Sydney Rabbitohs 26 points to 12 at ANZ Stadium this afternoon (Sunday) in front of 12,978 fans.
The Rabbitohs led early but were outclassed by the Dragons, with a shining light appearing at the conclusion of the match with Rabbitohs debutant Luke Capewell scoring a try in the final minute of play.
The Rabbitohs led six-nil after five minutes when a slick backline move paid off, Shannon Hegarty scoring in the left hand corner to strike the first blow. Issac Luke’s sideline conversion gave the home side the six-point advantage.
The Dragons scored two tries in the first half to go to the break 12 points to six up. Tries to Chase Stanley and Rangi Chase gave them the lead, and more was to come in the second half. The first half seemed to finish about one minute early with the NRL timekeeper sounding the siren with approximately 59 seconds remaining on the clock. The Rabbitohs had just started a fresh set of six in the Dragons 20 metre zone and were denied a meaning scoring opportunity by the mistake.
Two tries to Ben Creagh and one to Jason Nightingale in the second half gave the Dragons an unassailable lead before Capewell crossed in the 80th minute to give the Rabbitohs two tries for the match. Capewell’s try was set up by a handy run from David Kidwell, with Capewell backing up like all good fullbacks do to score. Luke conversion finished the scoring at 26-12 in favour of the Dragons.
“A couple of things went against us out there today,” Rabbitohs Head Coach Jason Taylor said.
“We threw an arm up at a kick to give them six more tackles and they scored from that, and we expended a lot of energy defending on our own line.
“The timekeeping error was an astronomical error. We had time to play a full set of six. It changes the whole game. It’s embarrassing really.”
Captain Roy Asotasi said: “It was a major error (the timekeeping incident). We were forced to kick it.
“The effort was there this week. We just got outplayed. We didn’t dominate. We need produce last week’s effort every week.
“We need to pick things up and play some footy.”
Taylor said the reports about the Rabbitohs front office shouldn’t have affected the players.
“I’d like to say it didn’t have an affect but it may be in the back of some of the players’ minds,” Taylor said.
“The real issue is that we are training very strongly all week but we’re not taking that out onto the field. That’s the scary part for us.”
Asotasi agreed with his coach.
“I steer clear of what’s in the newspapers and the other guys do too. We need to concentrate on playing good football,” Asotasi said.
The Rabbitohs move on to play the New Zealand Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium next Friday night.
St George Illawarra Dragons 26 (Ben Creagh 2, Chase Stanley, Rangi Chase, Jason Nightingale tries; Jamie Soward 3 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 12 (Shannon Hegarty, Luke Capewell tries; Issac Luke 2 goals)
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In the Toyota Cup, the St George Illawarra Dragons stole victory, 30 points to 28, in the final five minutes of play.
Centre BJ Nathan scored a double for the Rabbitohs, taking the competition leaders to the wire in a very entertaining game.
St George Illawarra Dragons 30 (Matt Mundine 2, Joe Vickery, Daniel Fepuleai, Rory O’Brien, John Kennedy tries; Matt Mundine 3 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 28 (BJ Nathan 2, Trent Trotter, Chris Sandow, Eddie Paea tries; Chris Sandow 4 goals)