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The South Sydney Rabbitohs have broken their premiership drought with a 30-6 victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs in the 2014 NRL Grand Final.
FINAL SCORE:
Rabbitohs 30
Bulldogs 6
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are hoping to break the most famous premiership drought with a victory in the 2014 NRL Grand Final, while the Canterbury Bulldogs will look to spoil the fairytale. Join The Roar for live Grand Final scores, live updates, and commentary from kickoff at 7:20pm (AEDT).
Preview: The Rabbitohs finished third on the ladder, but were the top side for long stretches of the year.
They were in patchy form coming into the finals, but a 40-24 victory over the Manly Sea Eagles saw them emerge as premiership favourites, confirmed by last weekend’s dominant win over the Roosters.
The Bulldogs stumbled into the finals, but their form has really picked up in September.
After stunning the Storm in Week 1 of the finals, they required a bit of luck (and golden point extra-time) to do away with the Sea Eagles in a classic Week 2 match-up.
A hard-fought victory over the Panthers in the preliminary final sealed their spot in the grand final.
The Rabbitohs will be missing hooker Issac Luke for this clash, rubbed out for a dangerous throw last weekend.
Apisai Koroisau replaces him, and he’ll look to play an error-free game in place of the Rabbitohs star.
Ben Te’o has been named to start, dropping Kyle Turner to the bench. Ben Lowe, Luke Burgess and Bryson Goodwin are on an extended bench.
The Bulldogs have some selection dramas of their own, as their hooker Michael Ennis will miss with a foot injury.
Ennis was named in the Bulldogs side and given every chance to play, however the miracle recovery was not to be, as he was withdrawn from the team in the lead up to the match.
Half-time result
South Sydney took a 6-0 lead into halftime of the 2014 NRL Grand Final, with an unconverted try and a penalty conversion to the Rabbitohs all that separated the two teams at the break.
The Rabbitohs were clearly the team on top, with 57% possession and far better completion rate of their sets – but the Bulldogs held on under pressure, most of it caused by their own mistakes.
The first half as it happened:
Stats
2014 NRL Grand Final stats from Channel 9
1st minute: The Rabbitohs’ Sam Burgess was injured in the first tackle of the game, colliding heads with the Bulldogs’ James Graham and appearing to fracture his cheekbone. He played on, despite an obvious mark left on his face – and a later confirmation of the fracture – saying “It’s f–ked” at half-time.
The Rabbitohs had plenty of early possession in the first minutes of the game on the back of Canterbury making simple mistakes on their own line.
The Bulldogs held on under repeat sets on their own line before a high shot on Sam Perrit saw the ball handed to the Rabbitohs, with veteran Lote Tuqiri appearing to score a try in the seventh minute. However, the play was picked up by the video referee, and ‘no try’ was ruled due to the swinging arm making contact with the head – the Bulldogs given a penalty for the to keep the game scoreless.
20′ Off the back of a penalty, Souths pushed the ball to the left with Alex Johnston opening the scoring in the corner for the Rabbitohs in the 20th minute. Adam Reynolds failed to convert from the sideline, with the score 4-0 to Souths.
23′ George Burgess was taken off the field with a suspected concussion. He emerged in the 31st minute from the rooms having passed his concussion test and returned to the field in the 34th minute.
25′ Greg Inglis made a bust up on the left of the field, making around 55m, before a penalty on a later tackle in the set was awarded for the Bulldogs’ Dale Finucane attempting to slow down the play the ball with a professional foul. Reynolds converted the penalty to take the Rabbitohs lead to 6-0 – and Finucane was fortunate not to be sin-binned.
29′ The Bulldogs kicked a 40-20 to get a set deep in Rabbitohs territory. Tony Williams pushed a late offload to Josh Morris but he dropped the ball under pressure to leave the Bulldogs scoreless.
35′ Josh Morris defused a bomb on his own line and was tackled while in the air, staying down after the tackle. The referee awarded the Bulldogs a penalty for the incident.
Half-time – George Burgess told Brad Fittler his cheekbone was no good as he left the field:
Join The Roar at 7:20pm (AEDT) for live scores and full coverage, including all the highlights, of the 2014 NRL Grand Final.
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