Updated: Tigers 36 Defeat Rabbitohs 12
21 Jul 2008
The South Sydney Rabbitohs’ winning streak came to an end today (Sunday) when they were beaten by the Wests Tigers, 36 points to 12 at ANZ Stadium in front of 21,818 Members and fans.
The Rabbitohs had the better of the first half but still trailed at the break, with the Tigers kicking on to score five second half tries to seal the win.
The Tigers scored in the ninth minute through giant winger Taniela Tuiaki, with Benji Marshall’s conversion giving the Tigers an early 6-nil lead.
In the 12th minute, Tigers fullback Tim Moltzen was sin-binned for a professional foul, and the Rabbitohs made the most of the overlap through rookie Jamie Simpson in the 20th minute. Simpson stepped off his right foot twice to score to the right of the posts. Issac Luke’s conversion leveled the scores at 6-all.
The Rabbitohs were on fire in the opening half, pressuring the Tigers through Chris Sandow’s kicking game and the multiple repeat sets the home side was forcing on the Tigers. Unfortunately the Rabbitohs didn’t convert those chances and it was the Tigers who posted the next try.
Beau Ryan scored in the 37th minute on the right wing, with Marshall’s conversion taking the Tigers to the break 12 points to 6 up.
In the 46th minute, Chris Lawrence crossed for Wests when the Tigers went to the blind side from a scrum. Four minutes later Robbie Farah scored to extend their lead to 20-6.
The Rabbitohs struck back in the 64th minute through captain Roy Asotasi. It was Simpson who made a long break down the right hand side with the ball finding Asotasi on the next play to score. Luke’s conversion brought the scores to 20-12.
From that point on it was all black and gold, with the Tigers converting the multiple chances given to them by the Rabbitohs.
Tries to Ryan, Lawrence and Tuiaki sealed the win for the Tigers, with the Rabbitohs now preparing to take on the Knights in Newcastle next Sunday afternoon at 2pm.
“We played against a really committed side today,” Rabbitohs Head Coach Jason Taylor said.
“I was happy with our intensity at the start of the match but they finished stronger than us.
“We invited them back into the game too many times and we just couldn’t seem to get it started.
“We went away from the things we practiced during the weekwhich is something we’ve been doing really well lately. That’s the disappointing thing.
“We won’t be giving up on our season from here. We let a few silly errors creep into our game and we lacked concentration at times. But we’ll work hard to get it right for next week’s game against Newcastle.”
Captain Roy Asotasi said: “We were going through the motions at stages out there.”
“We thought we could walk over the Tigers and it didn’t happen.
“Today’s game has knocked us back down to earth and we’ll learn from it and use those lessons against the Knights.”
Wests Tigers 36 (Beau Ryan 2, Chris Lawrence 2, Taniela Tuiaki 2, Robbie Farah tries; Benji Marshall 4 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 12 (Jamie Simpson, Roy Asotasi tries; Issac Luke 2 goals)
To see exclusive SSTV footage of the press conference, click play on the video above.
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In the Toyota Cup, the Wests Tigers made it a double beating the South Sydney Rabbitohs 26 points to 14
Wests Tigers 26 (Brett Lane 2, Matt Parata, Simon Dwyer, Benson Tupou tries; Matt Parata 3 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 14 (Andre Itula, Brad Takairangi, Joey Matapuku tries; Eddie Paea goal)