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South Sydney travel to Newcastle to take on the Knights in a sudden-death finals playoff. To make things even more interesting, the unlikely draw could see Canterbury leapfrog them into 8th spot as they host the Canberra Raiders on Sunday afternoon. Join us for live blogs and scores of the game from 7:30pm AEST tonight.
In all likelihood, it will either be the Rabbitohs or the Knights who travel down to Melbourne next week to face a daunting task, made somewhat more tame by the numerous suspensions dished out to Craig Bellamy’s side.
The Rabbitohs have made a late surge to put themselves in finals contention, when a few weeks a go, fans were already talking about what needs to be done next year.
With a very real shot at the finals, only time will tell whether the Bunnies will be able to handle the pressure of a sold-out Ausgrid Stadium, decked out in Red and Blue.
The Knights have far from an easy two points however, with the Rabbitohs pulling all sorts out of the hat over the last few weeks, including memorable come from behind victories against St George, Easts and North Queensland.
Last week’s outing against the Broncos was poor, in ball control more than anything, and if the huge crowd at Lang Park was too much for them, then the crowd at Newcastle should put the fear of god into them.
With a finals berth on the line, the Novacastrians will be positively fuming.
Newcastle have had a tough time in the last three weeks, losing all of their games, including a horror second half against the Bulldogs last week which saw them throw away a 22-6 lead to lose 32-22.
A loss would put them on their longest losing streak of the year at four to finish things off, in a season where they too have run hot and cold.
Both teams have a raft of their top players injured.
Key Battles
Two key defining battles will be between the opposing hookers, and the halfbacks. Issac Luke has been in pretty good form this year, but last week dropped a lot of balls, and despite making a lot of runs, several were very inefficient.
Tackling machine Isaac De Gois would seem the perfect man to try and contain the tricky little mans moves out of dummy half, which will be crucial n the back ends of both halves as the engine room runs out of juice.
The halves will be an intriguing battle. While previous seasons has seen Rabbitohs fans with their faces in their hands as often as in the air, suddenly, Chris Sandows’ freakish plays have stuck more often than not, and he is riding high.
Jarrod Mullen was being touted in many sections of the media as the main challenger for Mitchell Pearce’s New South Wales number 7 jersey, before injury cut him out.
Mullen had another injury which nearly saw him miss last weeks clash, but pulled through to play a full 80 minutes and lay on two tries for his teammates.
Line-ups
Kurt Gidley shifts from five-eighth to fullback, who is replaced by Ryan Stig off the bench. Houston moves from lock to second row, replacing Zane Tetavano, who has been dropped. Joel Edwards moves to lock from the bench. Taufa, Hilder, Ciraldo and Tetevano are in on the bench, while Karawana has been dropped.
James Roberts moves from fullback to the replacement bench to make way for Nathan Merritt, who may or may not play. Dylan Farrell switches to the wing to make way for Chris McQueens move to the centres. John Sutton replaces Greg Inglis in five-eighth – the usual Centre ruled out through injury.
My Tip
Newcastle choked a big lead, and bigger dominance last week, and South Sydney would be as willing as an team to make a big comeback. But Souths looked pretty average under pressure, and maybe it has hit the boys that they really might make the finals now. The pressure of Newcastle Stadium will be too much.
Knights by 4.
Join me at 7:30PM tonight for live blog and scores
[livescoring id=”dom-NRL20112602″]
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