Tigers 30 defeat Rabbitohs 10
20 Apr 2008
The Wests Tigers have defeated the South Sydney Rabbitohs 30 points to 10 today (Sunday) at the Sydney Cricket Ground in their round six Heritage Round clash in front of 19,122 fans.
The Tigers streaked away scoring 30 unanswered points, after the Rabbitohs led 10-nil after 27 minutes and 10-6 at half time.
The Rabbitohs played a solid first half with a strong defensive line complementing some enterprising attack.
It took 21 minutes for either side to register points, with Rabbitoh centre Beau Champion crossing for his second try in two weeks to open the scoring. Jeremy Smith sent the ball to the left to five-eighth John Sutton who drew two defenders to put Champion into a hole. The Rabbitohs took advantage of a number of repeat sets to build pressure and score the try. Nathan Merritt converted to give Souths a six-point lead.
Six minutes later Ben Rogers scored from a well-worked play close to the Tigers line. Again the ball went left, with dummy-half George Ndaira finding David Fa’alogo whose quick passing game hit Rogers to score.
Four minutes later, the Tigers scored through second-rower Chris Heighington. Brett Hodgson’s conversion finished the first half scoring at 10-6 in favour of the Rabbitohs.
For the Rabbitohs, hooker George Ndaira looked particularly dangerous. The 2007 Emerging Nations Player of the Year made good metres from dummy-half, put support runners into holes and tackled well. Sutton also looked dangerous in attack on the left hand side and Ben Rogers’ enthusiasm was an added ingredient to the Rabbitohs’ sides of the last few weeks.
The Rabbitohs revisited the straight line defensive pattern that served them so well in 2007, with the Tigers finding few holes in the Rabbitohs line.
For the Tigers, Taniela Tuiaki caused a few problems for the Rabbitohs right-side defence, and halfback Mathew Head was creating opportunities which his outside men couldn’t convert.
Unfortunately for the red and greens, their second half performance didn’t match the first. The Rabbitohs didn’t mount pressure the way did in the first half, and a number of missed tackles cost them dearly.
The Tigers were the first to score in the second half, with referee Ben Cummins playing a huge role in the scoring of the try. Mat Head put in a grubber kick close to the Rabbitohs line and Cummins failed to get out of the way of the ball. The Tigers, as attacking team, got the scrum feed and the repeat set, and scored through Dean Collis just three plays later. Hodgson converted to give the Tigers the lead for the first time in the game.
In the 65th minute, Tigers back-rower Ben Te’o scored a remarkable try, with four Rabbitohs’ defenders unable to keep hold of him over the line. Hodgson’s sideline conversion gave the Tigers an eight-point buffer with only 14 minutes left on the clock.
Just two minutes later, Tigers centre Chris Lawrence brushed off Germaine Paulson to score the Tigers’ fourth try. Hodgson’s goal extended the lead to 14 points with ten minutes left on the clock.
Stuart Flanagan was the next to score for the Tigers, rounding out the scoreline for the game, 30 points to ten in favour of the home side.
The Rabbitohs will go on to play the Brisbane Broncos on ANZAC Day, Friday 25 April at Suncorp Stadium.
Wests Tigers 30 (Chris Heighington, Dean Collis, Ben Te’o, Chris Lawrence, Stuart Flanagan tries; Brett Hodgson 5 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 10 (Beau Champion, Ben Rogers tries; Nathan Merritt goal)
In the Toyota Cup fixture, the Wests Tigers registered a 26 points to 12 victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The Rabbitohs came within two points of their opponents early in the second half, but the Tigers managed to pull away to record their third victory of the season.
Wests Tigers 26 (Brett Lane 2, Blake Ayshford, Robert Lui, Wayde Dunley tries; Matt Parata 2, Joey Latham goals)
defeated
South Sydney 12 (Michael Cummins, Luke Capewell try; Chris Sandow 2 goals)