South Sydney Rabbitohs down St George Illawarra Dragons in high quality game
Date May 12, 2015 - 8:57AM
Michael Carayannis
South Sydney 16 St George Illawarra 10
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South Sydney returned to their winning ways with a high quality 16-10 victory against St George Illawarra on Monday night. The Rabbitohs halted a three-game losing streak to win by three tries to two. While the Dragons may have tasted defeat for the first time since round two, they lost few admirers in another performance which showed enough to indicate they will end their finals exile.
A revamped South Sydney side featured the return of John Sutton and Adam Reynolds. The Dragons also welcomed back Josh Dugan prematurely from an ankle injury with the fullback causing plenty of havoc for the Rabbitohs defence.
Time H2 40:15 Team SOU Score 16 Team STG Score 10 South Sydney Rabbitohs versus St George-Illawarra Dragons
View Match Statistics Players Gray(2), Johnston Tries
3 Tries
2 Players Widdop, Nightingale Players Reynolds 1/3 (33%) Conversions
1 Conversions
0 Players Players Reynolds 1/1 (100%) Penalty goals
1 Penalty goals
1 Players Widdop 1/1 (100%) Players Field goals
0 Field goals
0 Players
He finished with a game high 251 metres, while Reynolds was solid in his comeback with his kicking game a point of difference. Reynolds and Dugan may have enjoyed their returns, the same can not be said for Sutton.
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Sutton's comeback from a broken jaw was short lived having been forced from the field after 18 minutes because of a bad poke to his eye. The innocuous incident drew a penalty via the video referee and helped the Rabbitohs open the scoring through the boot of Reynolds in front of 14,126 people.
The Dragons kicked a penalty goal of their own before they capitalised on a new-look Rabbitohs right edge. Alex Johnston switched wings to partner Reynolds and Dylan Walker, with the trio struggling to contain opposites Peter Mata'utia and Euan Aitken.
A Trent Merrin offload, before a wide shift found Mata'utia who stepped on the inside of Walker and shrugged off Reynolds to streak clear before drawing in fullback Greg Inglis to hand Gareth Widdop an easy passage to the try line.
Issac Luke's injection into the game from the interchange after 30 minutes helped spark the Rabbitohs attack, with the premiers looking the better of the two sides late in the half. A well-rehearsed backline sweep, with the Rabbitohs compressed on the left side, helped rookie winger Aaron Gray get on the outside of opposite Jason Nightingale to catch a first class cut out ball by Inglis to draw the scores level.
Nightingale would not have to wait long to get his revenge when Benji Marshall exposed a Rabbitohs defence who were caught one man short for Nightingale to score and give the Dragons a 10-6 half-time lead.
South Sydney started the second half with a flurry, second two tries in 18 minutes. Gray would have his second try seven minutes after half-time when he powered over Nightingale to score. The Rabbitohs continued to build pressure. Despite being the best defensive side in the NRL, the Dragons could not repel four consecutive sets, with Johnston eventually scoring in the corner with South Sydney gaining a match winning 16-10 lead.
Dugan tried to inspire a Dragons comeback, but the Rabbitohs defence stood strong, as they halted St George Illawarra from scoring despite four consecutive sets on the Rabbitohs try line late in the game.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...ons-in-high-quality-game-20150511-ggz8d0.html
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