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The South Sydney Rabbitohs face a season and character defining test against the stumbling Brisbane Broncos in Round 19. Join The Roar from 7:30pm (AEST) for live scores and coverage.
Things have taken a bad turn for the Rabbitohs.
They’ve lost five in a row, were kept to zero last time out by the North Queensland Cowboys and a team with the talent to be premiership contenders has become a disjointed rabble that will be lucky to play finals.
Things got worse this week when they showed two players the door for disciplinary reasons – talented yet misguided centre Kirisome Auva’a for a second breach of the NRL’s illicit substances policy and back rower Paul Carter after he had a pre-training bender. Clearly all is not well at Redfern.
As a positive though Adam Reynolds is back partnering Luke Keary in the halves, hopefully adding some attacking nous to a team that has looked clueless getting the ball to their outside men Aaron Gray, Dylan Walker and Alex Johnston.
Brisbane have been far from electrifying lately going 2-6 during the Origin period.
They have tumbled from competing for a top two position all the way to sixth and scrambling to get back on track. Their last effort was a true pasting, 48-6 by the Melbourne Storm before a bewildered home crowd.
The teams named on Tuesday have undergone major surgery so take the named teams with a grain of salt.
The Bunnies will swap Tautalatasi Tasi out for George Burgess on the bench while Greg Inglis is out suspended after his shoulder charge on Josh Dugan in Origin, which will leave a massive void.
Brisbane have their own troubles after Origin, with Matt Gillett out injured and Corey Parker suspended for the first time in his decade-long career after his raking of James Tedesco’s face. ‘
Jordan Kahu should take the kicking duties while Andrew McCullough and Adam Blair will have to add to their usual defensive workload to keep the Bunnies forwards in check.
Darius Boyd, Sam Thaiday and Josh McGuire are named to after Wednesday’s tough Origin outing.
Prediction
It’s time for Souths to draw a line in the sand.
They have an opportunity to beat a team with premiership aspirations and get their own season on track, distant as any finals hopes may be. There’s no doubt they have the talent, but do they have the application?
As for Brisbane, they have three Origin class players backing up, two out and have staggered through the last two months.
There’s no doubt Brisbane look more potent on paper, but their defence has taken real punishment lately. I’m going to tip the upset here.
Souths by 4.
Join us from 7:30pm (AEST) for live coverage on The Roar.