By Adrian Warren
July 14th 2008 @ 8:05am
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Sandow just happy to be in first grade
His captain and coach have given rookie sensation Chris Sandow huge praise, but the South Sydney player says he doesn’t even consider himself a first grade rugby league player yet.
The electrifying halfback has yet to taste defeat, playing in Souths’ five successive wins, their longest victory streak in 14 years.
Last night’s 32-20 conquest of Parramatta at ANZ Stadium revolved around the two young playmakers, Sandow and Parramatta five-eighth Feleti Mateo.
Sandow featured in four of Souths’ six tries, while Mateo also played well until suffering a medial ligament knee injury shortly after halftime.
He returned to the field for the last quarter after a ten minute break but given he is carrying an ankle injury as well there’s serious concern about his availability over the coming weeks.
Rabbitohs captain Roy Asotasi said Sandow had done “wonders” since coming into first grade, while coach Jason Taylor said the rookie halfback’s kicking game had made “a massive difference to our whole team.”
Sandow, who hadn’t spoken to the media before last night, was quick to down play his part in the Rabbitohs resurgence.
“I’m not a first grader yet, that was my fifth game, I’m just taking each game as it comes,” Sandow told AAP.
“I want to stay there to the end of the year, but I’ve got to perform each week.”
Taylor, Asotasi and Sandow all stressed that Souths weren’t worrying about trying to make the finals, even though their latest win pushed them to within three points of eighth spot.
However, their next three fixtures are all against teams currently outside the top eight.
Slumping Parramatta, who are just two points ahead of Souths after crashing to their third loss in four games, were sweating on scans on Mateo to be performed tomorrow.
Asked if he would be right for Friday, Mateo said: “You can never tell, sometimes they say if you don’t feel anything it’s worse, so I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see,” Mateo said.
Parramatta hope to have captain Nathan Cayless back from an infected shin, but acting skipper Nathan Hindmarsh was brutally honest about what the potential loss of Mateo could mean to the Eels.
“We are up shit creek pretty much, we’ve got one paddle (Mateo) left, if we loose that we’re in strife,” Hindmarsh said.
“Its going to be difficult for us. “This year he’s been our standout player and sets up most of our tries and scores a lot himself.”
Paramatta coach Michael Hagan believed the Eels needed to win five of their eight games to make the finals and said he couldn’t knock the effort of his players.
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