| Rabbitohs send timely message | | Print | |
| Saturday, 28 February 2009 23:59 | |||
heraldsun.com.au  Desperation... Eddy Pettybourne attempts to reach out for the try-line. Photograph: Mark Evans / The Sunday Telegraph SOUTH Sydney can't make the top eight. So said 14 NRL captains and one anonymous member of the St George Illawarra leadership group last week. The judgment of those players is looking a little dusty today as Souths last night gave the doubters something to think about with an upset win against the Dragons in the annual Charity Shield. Despite coach Jason Taylor refusing to acknowledge the insult provided his players with motivation before the match, there was no denying a fired-up Souths outfit was intent on dominating their more celebrated rivals. "No,'' was all Taylor would say when asked if he used the article as ammunition. However, captain Roy Asotasi's wry smile suggested there was certainly something extra behind South Sydney's victory. "Look, it was a good game, but we've still got plenty of other stuff to work on,'' Asotasi said. "Last year we won both trials and thought we were better than we were, so we've learned from that. We're just going to improve on what we did tonight.'' Led by a commanding performance from five-eighth John Sutton, David Kidwell and new recruits Rhys Wesser and Colin Best, the Rabbitohs brought an end to Wayne Bennett's unbeaten record of pre-season victories with the Dragons. "I was happy with what we did defensively, we've worked hard on it,'' Taylor said. "We had some good testing periods. They let us off the hook as well.'' The Dragons were their own worst enemy, showing a complete disregard for ball control and execution. Bennett was disappointed but confident he could rectify the problem before their round one clash with Melbourne. "We knew it would be a tough game,'' Dragons forward Dean Young said. "The media always builds this up to be more than a trial, so we knew it would be a lot tougher than the other two trials. We just didn't play smart and dropped a lot of ball. We've got two weeks to work on those things.'' Ignoring an early shot at penalty goal, Souths instead swept the football wide and a cut-out pass from Wesser hit winger Nathan Merritt at pace and the winger scored in the corner. Dragons forward Beau Scott then charged down a clearing kick from young Souths halfback Chris Sandow to level the scores. The ball ricocheted towards the Souths in-goal and through the desperate clutches of Wesser, with Scott pouncing on the loose ball. The Rabbitohs continued to pile on the pressure in the second-half through the go-forward of Luke Stuart and David Kidwell. And Sutton provided the creativity to complement their graft. Thriving under the confidence of being selected as the club's first-choice five-eighth this season, Sutton punished the Dragons five minutes into the second half. Again opting to attack out wide, Sutton had his rivals back-pedalling before dribbling a perfectly weighted grubber kick into the in-goal for Best to touch down. Luke's perfect strike from the sideline gave the Rabbits a 12-6 lead with 35 minutes remaining. Sutton and Best then combined for further points, but this time the Rabbitohs centre only had to run through a gaping hole and take the well-timed pass from his five-eighth. Luke capped a perfect night with the boot by landing his third conversion from out wide. SOUTHS 18 (C Best 2, N Merritt tries; I Luke 3 goals) DRAGONS 6 (B Scott tries; M Head goal). Referees: T Archer, G Badger Crowd: 25,871.
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