Rabbitohs 32 DEFEAT Sharks 26
24 Apr 2009
The South Sydney Rabbitohs have defeated the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 32 points to 26 at ANZ Stadium tonight (Friday) in front of 11,208 Members and fans.
Beau Champion scored two tries in the Rabbitohs victory, which saw the home team score six tries to five, securing their fourth win for the season from seven matches.
The opening ten minutes was a torrid affair, with both sides dishing out some heavy defence, but it was the Rabbitohs who registered first points in the 11th minute of play.
Second-rower David Kidwell charged on to a short ball on the right hand side of the field, busting through the defence to score his first try for the year. Chris Sandow converted to give the Rabbitohs a six-nil lead.
Seven minutes later, Beau Champion scored his first try after some hot-potato football landed in his hands on the right hand side of the field. Some great handling from Sandow set up the try, and Sandow’s conversion gave the Rabbitohs a 12-nil lead.
Just three minutes later and the Rabbitohs had scored their third try, this time through David Fa’alogo. It was a John Sutton grubber kick towards the left hand corner that found Fa’alogo in-goal for the four-pointer.
The Rabbitohs seem to nod off at this point, allowing Paul Gallen to score in the 26th minute.
The Rabbitohs responded when captain Roy Asotasi scored a fantastic individual try that combined a break, step and dummy to score a 35 metre four-pointer. Sandow’s conversion took the Rabbitohs lead out 22-6.
The Rabbitohs took the foot off the pedal again, allowing Luke Covell and David Simmons to score, with Covell converting all three Sharks’ first half tries.
The score at half time read 22-18 in favour of the Rabbitohs, but South Sydney were more dominant than that. They were making good metres through the forwards and the backs were creating opportunities. It was two periods of football slumber that let the Sharks back into the game.
Rabbitohs winger Nathan Merritt pulled off a bell-ringing try-saving tackle in the 46th minute, giving the Rabbitohs the jolt they needed to kick on with the game.
In the 49th minute, Champion scored his second after he slid past three defenders to score.
Three minutes later Merritt scored a try of his own after Champion had made a 40 metre break before offloading to Merritt to touch down.
The game seemed safe at 32-18, yet the Rabbitohs allowed the Sharks back into the game for a third time when Ben Pomeroy and Covell scored tries in the 66th and 75th minutes respectively.
The final five minutes were nerve-racking for Rabbitohs fans, but the red and greens held on to secure the two competition points.
The Rabbitohs looked good in attack, with halfback Chris Sandow getting more involved in the game week-after-week. The Rabbitohs defence lacked potency at times, which Rabbitohs Head Coach Jason Taylor said was the most disappointing part of his team’s effort.
“We took the two competition points which keeps us moving along, but I was disappointed with how we played tonight,” he said at the post-match media conference.
“We scored some good tries, but our defence was way off what it should be.
“They played well and tested us, but we invited them back into the game too many times, especially in the first half.
“We have to improve in certain areas and we will work hard on that. We’re doing it for periods, but we need to do it for the full 80 minutes. We need to work hard at playing with consistency.
“We’ve got great fight in our team, and they just kept coming.
“We’re working hard at getting (Chris Sandow) back into our game. We have players like John Sutton, Craig Wing and Issac Luke who are keen for the ball, and it’s important that he gets his hands on the ball as well. His attack has been heading in the direction we want it to.”
Rabbitohs captain Roy Asotasi said he was also disappointed with the way his team played in patches.
“I’m disappointed too. We’ve let in too many tries and made too many errors in the last two weeks,” he said.
“We need to work hard this week and get ourselves up for the Titans game.
“We’ve got to stop playing in patches and work hard for the wins for the whole game.”
The Rabbitohs move on to play the Gold Coast Titans at Skilled Park next Saturday afternoon at 3pm.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 32 (Beau Champion 2, David Kidwell, David Fa’alogo, Roy Asotasi, Nathan Merritt tries; Chris Sandow 4 goals)
defeated
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 26 (Luke Covell 2, Paul Gallen, David Simmons, Ben Pomeroy tries; Luke Covell 3 goals)
In the Toyota Cup match in round seven at ANZ Stadium, Rabbitohs winger Kennedy Pettyborne scored a hat-trick to cannon his team to victory, 32 points to 14.
Centre Junior Vaivai scored 12 points of his own in the victory.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 32 (Kennedy Pettyborne 3, Dylan Farrell, Junior Vaivai, Kane Morgan tries; Junior Vaivai 4 goals)
defeated
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 14 (Cass Aiga, Ben Orcher, Daniel Perkins tries; Chad Townsend goal)