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Michael Ennis turned in a blinder at Remondis ‘Pool’ on Monday night to lead the Sharks to a magnificent 18-10 win over reigning premiers South Sydney in atrocious conditions.
Constant driving rain, and a howling southerly that peaked around 87 kilometres per hour, made it almost impossible to see from the northern end, while the pools of water were so bad the NRL gave both teams the option to postpone.
Neither took up the offer for the sake of the 3978 brave fans who turned out when they should have been on the warm couch at home watching the game on television.
Dual international Lote Tuqiri, a member of the Rabbitohs’ premiership side last year tweeted: “Don’t know about you but I’m happy to be watching from my living room tonigh”.
But in the end both teams played superb football despite the onslaught, and their passing and handling were almost perfect with both completion rates in the 90 per cent vicinity.
That stat alone was extraordinary. As was Michael Ennis.
The former Bulldogs skipper took over the captaincy when Paul Gallen was ruled out with a badly bruised hip and was an inspiration to his new teammates. Ennis’ two intelligent and well-placed grubber kicks close to the line in both halves produced match-winning tries, highlighting his 80-minute leadership.
Tireless Luke Lewis scored off the first, and Jayson Bukuya the second to clinch the win.
Last year’s cellar-dwellers have now beaten the Roosters 20-12, the Knights 22-6, and Souths in their last three games, while the premiers have lost 29-16 to the Eels, 30-12 to the Raiders to go along with Monday night’s performance.
There wasn’t a weak link in the Sharks with Chris Heighington running 162 metres, and Gerard Beale 140, while for Souths Tom Burgess ran 152 metres and Greg Inglis 136.
Under the conditions those are four amazing stats while ploughing through the slop.
To complete the amazing stats, the Sharks played so much better and more positively in the second half, driving into that deluge and gale than Souths did in the first half, when they were fresh.
In short, the Sharks won the first half 10-4, and the second half 8-6. And they can thank their man of the match skipper for showing the way.