VENUE & TIME: ANZ Stadium, Saturday 2 August, 7:30pm AEST.
COVERAGE: Sky Sport 2, 9:30pm
LAST TIME: Rabbitohs 35 - Warriors 28, at Mt Smart Stadium, Round 13, 2008.

WALKING WOUNDED: The Warriors owe a lot of their four-match winning streak to fielding an unchanged line-up for the last three of those victories and the same 17 are on show again this week. Wing Manu Vatuvei may be over his leg injury in time for Round 22's home match against the Broncos. The Rabbitohs have no one on the medical list and hooker Isaac Luke returns from a one-week suspension.

FORM: The Warriors have done their playoffs hopes a world of good over the past month while the Rabbitohs are fizzling out. At one stage the carrier of the NRL's worst defensive record in 2008, the Warriors are turning it around and last Sunday's 8-6 win over the Storm was achieved by pure grit. They are one point outside the eight and high in confidence. South Sydney, however, can start making holiday plans for the month of the playoffs. Five wins in a row, kick-started with a win over the Warriors, raised hopes of an incredible turn-around from a one win, 11 loss start but heavy defeats to the Tigers and Knights quashed them quickly.

WHO'S HOT: Even rarer than one player cracking 50 tackles in a game is two from the same side doing so in one match. That was the case for Warriors warhorses Micheal Luck and Ian Henderson who made 56 against the Storm as they led a defence that let in only one try and forced the usually rock-solid Melbournians into completing only 24 percent of their sets. Simon Mannering was also tireless with 39 tackles and 141 metres gained. Tackling wasn't the Rabbitohs' strong suit in last week's loss to the Knights as they missed an astonishing 93 of them. Two-try fullback Nathan Merritt earned praise from coach Jason Taylor but it's fair to say few others would've.

WE THINK: Put two teams together that are historically harder to tip than an African elephant and it's usually a recipe for disaster. The Warriors were expected to win convincingly in Round 13 but the Rabbitohs snuck up on them and caused a real boilover. That will be fresh in the Warriors' minds this week. Their forwards are on a roll and the Bunnies will struggle to contain the hot centre combination of Sonny Fai and Brent Tate. Much of South Sydney's hopes rest on the broad shoulders of Craig Wing and if the Warriors can negate him as they did with Storm playmaker Cooper Cronk a week ago, the rest should fall into place. Warriors by 10

TEAMS:

Rabbitohs: 1. Nathan Merritt, 2. Luke Capewell, 3. Jamie Simpson, 4. Beau Champion, 5. Fetuli Talanoa, 6. Craig Wing, 7. Chris Sandow, 8. Scott Geddes, 9. Issac Luke, 10. Roy Asotasi (c), 11. Luke Stuart, 12. David Fa'alogo, 13. John Sutton
Interchange (one to be omitted): 14. Beau Falloon, 15. Shannan McPherson, 16. Manase Manuokafoa, 17. Michael Greenfield, 18. David Kidwell

Warriors: 1. Lance Hohaia, 2. Malo Solomona, 3. Brent Tate, 4. Sonny Fai, 5. Aidan Kirk, 6. Nathan Fien, 7. Grant Rovelli, 8. Ruben Wiki (v-c), 9. Ian Henderson, 10. Steve Price (c), 11. Simon Mannering, 12. Logan Swann, 13. Micheal Luck
Interchange: 20. Jerome Ropati, 15. Evarn Tuimavave, 16. Sam Rapira, 17. Ben Matulino