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Last round, when television cameras caught Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor during the 60-6 shellacking by the Raiders, he looked a shattered man.
Last night, Taylor was emotionless as firstly the Tigers did all the roaring before the Rabbitohs momentarily fought back, but couldn’t sustain their efforts for the Tigers to win 30-22.
Taylor only broke into a huge grin with two minutes to go, when his side was home.
What a massive turnaround in the space of five days.
“We owed Jason Taylor that win,” was hooker Robbie Farah’s post-match explanation. That comment in itself was indicative of how the Taylor-Farah rift has healed.
But if the Tigers were thoroughbreds they would have been in the steward’s room immediately after last night’s win.
More so with heavyweight props skipper Aaron Woods and Tim Grant out injured, losing play-maker Mitchell Moses to a quad injury sustained late in the warm-up, and crack fullback James Tedesco to a shoulder injury for the entire second half.
But Farah and Curtis Sironen took up the slack upfront, while Luke Brooks’ general play and his boot joined forces with Jordan Rankin to show how the backs led Souths a merry dance.
Jardine added two tries and three goals from six attempts for a 14-point haul.
In a strange game of three distinct sections, the Tigers swept to a 20-0 lead in the first 21 minutes, Souths retaliated with 18 points in a point-a-minute burst, before the Tigers regained their authority to add 10 points for a game winning 30-22 scoreline.
There are genuine reasons to say Wests Tigers didn’t win this game, Souths lost it by doing nothing in defence or attack for a total of 62 minutes.
Up front, they were an embarrassment to the traditions of the once mighty Rabbitohs.
Teak-tough was replaced by a pathetic prima donna pack with the exception of benchman Nathan Brown who ran hard and straight every time he touched the ball.
The much-vaunted Burgess brothers went MIA apart from one bust from Sam in 80 minutes.
As a result, every time the Tigers had possession they made over 10 metres a carry because the Souths pack sat well back on their heels gift-wrapping empty space.
It was both embarrassing and frustrating to watch a star-studded Souths pack going nowhere in slow motion.
To add insult to injury, Souths missed 32 tackles as well.
Only once did the television camera catch South skipper Greg Inglis exploding at his team mates under the goal posts after the Tigers fourth try in 21 minutes.
Not that Inglis did much either, but he wasn’t allowed to as the Tiger defence shut him down early every time.
So the Tigers ran in six tries to four, earning themselves credit going into the NRL break.
Souths must use that time to reorganise themselves into what resembles a football team.
And that won’t be easy with all the negative thoughts firmly etched into Souths’ current game plan.