| Crain Wing inspires Rabbitoh revival against Newcastle | | Print | |
| Sunday, 29 March 2009 17:09 | |||
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Article from: Australian Associated Press SOUTH Sydney's prodigal son Craig Wing returned to inspire the Rabbitohs to a 22-12 come-from-behind NRL win over Newcastle at Bluetongue Stadium today.  Craig Wing breaks clear at Bluetongue Stadium Picture: Phil Hillyard Wing revealed afterwards just how difficult his 2009 debut was, playing after his grandmother passed away last night. “I just want to dedicate this to my grandma who passed away last night,” Wing told Fox Sports. The Rabbitohs lacked direction until Wing was injected in the 28th minute, but were still scoreless at half-time with Newcastle leading 8-0. Wing provided spark out of dummy half but it wasn't until hooker Issac Luke rejoined the play in the 51st minute that the Rabbitohs began to run amok. After going 132 minutes without scoring a try, including last week's loss to Parramatta, Wing darted over from close range in the 57th minute to kick-start a run of four tries in 15 minutes to blow Newcastle off the park. Luke made a break from dummy half that led to Fetuli Talanoa's 59th minute try, before Wing barged over from dummy half in the 69th minute to give South Sydney an eight point buffer. Kiwi Test star Luke sealed the result in the 72nd minute, running 40m after a superb offload from skipper Roy Asotasi to David Fa'alogo to score beneath the posts. It is the first time since 2003 that Souths have failed to score any points in the first half and come back to claim victory. Newcastle managed a consolation try four minutes from fulltime with centre Junior Sau strolling over in the corner. The Knights had started the game brilliantly with Scott Dureau opting to run the ball inside their own half instead of kick it on just the fifth tackle of the game. The risky move paid immediate dividends with Cory Paterson breaking clear before throwing a one handed offload for Adam MacDougall to put James McManus across for the first try of the game. Dureau set up Newcastle's second try in the 16th minute with a perfectly weighted grubber kick for winger Akuila Uate to score in the corner. The Newcastle halfback almost set up McManus for another try in the 20th minute but the winger lost the ball over the tryline. Dureau could have rammed home Newcastle's advantage with his own four-pointer just nine minutes into the second half, but was a little too casual when the hole opened up with Beau Champion holding him up inches above the turf. SOUTH SYDNEY 22 (C Wing 2 I Luke F Talanoa tries C Sandow 3 goals) NEWCASTLE 12 (J McManus J Sau A Uate tries) at Bluetongue Stadium. Referee: A Klein, Brett Suttor. Crowd: 15,227. AAP
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