RABBITOHS 23 DEFEAT TIGERS 22
17 May 2009
The South Sydney Rabbitohs have scored an amazing victory against the Wests Tigers at the Sydney Cricket Ground today (Sunday) with a Nathan Merritt field goal in the final seconds of the match securing the 23 points to 22 win in front of 29,970 supporters.
The game could not have been tighter, with the half time score deadlocked at 10-all, the sides scoring four tries a-piece, both teams kicking three goals, with the difference being Merritt’s outstanding strike with the clock reading 79:56. Winger Fetuli Talanoa was a two-try hero in the match, earning the South Sydney Players’ Player award.
The defensive effort in the first five minutes indicated just how tight the game would be, repelling five sets of attack from the Tigers in the first four minutes.
The Rabbitohs, buoyed by their defensive effort, managed to score first through powerful second-rower David Fa’alogo in the 11th minute. The Rabbitohs capitalised on a repeat set, sending the ball to the right. David Kidwell took the ball forward before offloading to his countryman Fa’alogo, who beat three defenders to score. Chris Sandow converted to give South Sydney a six-point advantage.
Three minutes later giant Tigers winger Taniela Tuiaki scored the first of two tries in the left hand corner. Five minutes later, Tuiaki was at it again, with Benji Marshall’s sideline conversion giving Wests a 10-6 lead.
Talanoa scored his first try in the 38th minute of play, after a long ball from Craig Wing to the left found Colin Best, who made a 40 metre bust up the left hand flank to put Talanoa away for his first four-pointer. Talanoa’s lack of balance after scoring saw him tumble over the advertising boards behind the dead ball area, but he was ok and the teams went to the break locked up at 10-all.
The Rabbitohs were doing well to hang in there during the first half. Their defence was solid, but poor handling was costing them possession and making the game a lot harder on themselves than it needed to be. Colin Best was getting some early ball and it was paying dividends for Souths on the left hand side of the field.
Tigers’ hooker Robbie Farah was the star of the opening moments of the second half, kicking a 40/20 in the 43rd minute and scoring a try in the 47th minute from dummy half. Marshall’s conversion gave the home side a 16-10 lead.
Three minutes later the Tigers struck again through Tim Moltzen who cleaned up a spilt bomb to score. Marshall converted again to extend the lead to 12 points with less than 30 minutes left on the clock.
Sandow left the field in the 59th minute with an ankle injury, meaning the Rabbitohs needed to shuffle their backline. Craig Wing moved to halfback with Jamie Simpson coming on at five-eighth.
The move paid dividends with Talanoa out-leaping Beau Ryan to catch a perfect cross-field bomb to score in the left corner. Issac Luke converted from the touchline to take the score to 22-16.
The Rabbitohs defence then kept them in the game, with Luke and Wing pulling off two try-saving tackles within seven minutes to cut down the Tigers’ attacking opportunities.
With five minutes left on the clock, South Sydney centre Beau Champion scored on the right hand side of the field, stepping off his right foot to slice through the defence to score. Issac Luke slotted the conversion to set up an amazing final five minutes with the scores locked at 22-all.
Both teams threw everything at each other in the final five minutes. The Rabbitohs had field goal opportunities charged down and the game looked destined to head to golden point.
With just seconds on the clock, the Rabbitohs were in front of the posts about 10 metres out. The ball was rocketed back to Wing who had pressur eon him from the defence. He passed the ball to the right to find Nathan Merritt, who calmly drop-kicked the ball between the posts from the right hand side of the field to score the vital final point and give the Rabbitohs the thrilling victory.
The Rabbitohs forwards worked very hard throughout the whole game and the Rabbitohs backs looked dangerous for most of the afternoon.
Rabbitohs Head Coach Jason Taylor said his team still had improvement in them.
“We’re pleased we got the victory in the end, but we didn’t play as well as we can and we will improve,” Taylor said.
“The effort was there and it’s a credit to our boys with how we hung in there.”
Field goal hero Nathan Merritt said: “As soon as I hit it I knew it was going over.
“I don’t practice field goals, but it came off sweet.”
Commenting on the field goal, Taylor said: “He (Merritt) is a noted goal kicker, a talented guy, and you can’t hit them sweeter than that.”
Taylor also praised new recruit Michael Crocker for his debut game in the cardinal and myrtle.
“Crocker only had about ten minutes off. He has an amazing capacity to get through the work,” Taylor said.
“He’s got great communications skills and his experience showed in those final few minutes.”
The Rabbitohs go on to play the Parramatta Eels next Friday night at ANZ Stadium at 7:35pm. Members should note that this is a Parramatta home game.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 23 (Fetuli Talanoa 2, David Fa’alogo, Beau Champion tries; Issac Luke 2, Chris Sandow goals; Nathan Merritt field goal)
defeated
Wests Tigers 22 (Taniela Tuiaki 2, Robbie Farah, Tim Moltzen tries; Benji Marshall 3 goals)
In the Toyota Cup, the Wests Tigers secured a 24 points to 22 victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Rabbitohs scored five tries to the Tigers’ four with centre Junior Vaivai scoring a triple. However the Tigers’ perfect goal kicking record sealed the win for the home side, with goal kicking the difference in the end.
Wests Tigers 24 (Sama Sauvao, Matt Hyland, Jake Mullaney, Simon Dwyer tries; Jake Mullaney 3, Darren Nicholls goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 22 (Junior Vaivai 3, Dylan Farrell, Kane Morgan tries; Matt Mundine goal)