In what was dubbed pre-match as a must win for both sides in the context of their season, the Rabbitohs trumped the Tigers 28-8 in a heated affair at a wet and windy ANZ stadium.
With both sides going into the match boasting a 3-6 record – the Rabbitohs landed the first blow through Alex Johnston, who touched down in the 15th minute after some delightful lead up work from John Sutton. A sin-binning to Tigers enforcer Ava Seumanufagai for striking Robbie Farah led to another four pointer, this time through captain reliable Sam Burgess, who burst through some suspect defence close to the Tigers line.
Three repeat sets for the Bunnies followed, and at one point it looked as though the Tigers had no answers to the rampant men in green. To add insult to the Tigers poor defensive showing in the first forty, Angus Crichton slipped past a flailing James Tedesco to score on the stroke of halftime.
When the siren blew to signal the end of the first stanza, the Rabbitohs led 16-2 and you’d have been hard pressed to find punters backing a fragmented and frazzled Tigers outfit.
Ivan Cleary and those punters would have been happy for the first ten minutes of the second half. Elijah Taylor scored an opportunistic four pointer close to the line before extended defensive pressure saw the Rabbitohs begin to look flustered.
It took three minutes for that to right itself, however, as Johnston and Burgess both completed their doubles in the space of 90 seconds. A restart that went out on the full from the boot of Mitchell Moses only adding to the Tigers woes.
From there, it was all the Rabbitohs, as the Tigers consistently failed to come up with answers to the guile and touch of Farah and the brutality of the Burgess boys and Angus Crichton. Alex Johnston was a constant threat on the wing, and if not for a bad bounce, he would’ve had three deserved tries.
John Sutton was also outstanding, consistently finding space down the short side for the Rabbitohs flyers to work their magic.
Robbie Farah and Sam Burgess, however, can both lay claim to being best on ground. Burgess scored two tries and ran for 230 metres, and Farah all but secured his choke hold on the #9 jersey for the blues in origin one.
Where to from here? The Rabbitohs gain revenge for the loss in Round 1, and in the process have put their season back on track.
They face a tough test in the Melbourne Storm next round, whereas the Tigers and Ivan Cleary have a long week of questions ahead.
Their halves looked like they had no answers to the immense kicking and running game of the Rabbits, and will need a much improved performance next week if they are going to come up with the chocolates against a red-hot Broncos side.
Rabbitohs 28 versus Wests Tigers 8
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