It was the Man of League Heritage round and a traditional clash between Wests vs Souths ended in the narrowest of escapes for the Rabbitohs.
It was great to see Wests wearing the old Magpies colours. Although the current Wests Tigers jersey is the best that the joint venture has had to date, I don’t understand why the club does not wear the old Wests and Balmain jerseys on alternate weeks.
A good crowd of 25,608 turned up to Allianz Stadium and they were treated to a cracker.
The first half was pretty entertaining, with plenty of big hits and blood spilt. Only the one try separated the two sides, scored in the second minute of play.
Wests fullback Tim Moltzen started it with a 40/20, then from a beautifully worked play from the scrum Moltzen finished it with a try in the corner.
It was a bad day for the English, with Souths Sam Burgess leaving the field after 23 minutes with a suspected medial ligament strain, while Wests Gareth Ellis also left the field with a foot injury.
Michael Crocker may have a case to answer to the judiciary after connecting with Tim Moltzen’s head with a forearm.
Seven minutes into the second half, Souths’ Isaac Luke scored a try from dummy half to make the scores level. But Wests struck back with a lovely cut-out pass from Benji Marshall that hit its mark, with Lote Tuqiri crossing the stripe.
Wests then looked to have the game in the bag when Marshall set up the play for Blake Ayshford to score in the right corner.
In past seasons Souths probably would have thrown in the towel, at 12 points behind and 10 minutes to go. But the red and green hung in there and produced two tries in two minutes.
The Rabbits’ hooker crossed for his second try, scooting from dummy half. Then Andrew Everingham scored from a Dave Taylor grubber.
At 18-16 it was all up to rookie half-back Adam Reynolds to convert the try and send the game into golden point overtime. Like a 10-year veteran of the game Reynolds put it over the black dot.
So it was onto golden point, and the man that Wests had kept quiet all game, Greg Inglis, took control and got the job done for the Bunnies.
From 35 out Inglis’ drop goal had just enough legs to get over the cross bar after hitting the left post. An extraordinary way to finish the game and one that will go down in South Sydney history as the Great Escape.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Outrageous from the Broncos skipper on 'a wooden leg!'
The Wests Tigers threw the ball around like it was a grenade with the final kick sitting up perfectly for Charlie Staines to collect…
It was already going horrendously for Benji Marshall and the Tigers, 22-0 down at the hour mark, when their captain walked off the field.…
Samuela Fainu thought he pulled off a great tackle on Corey Oates, the problem was he was running for a quick restart, instead, he…
Api Koroisau thought he slammed the ball down for a try but on review, the bunker said there was separation and ruled no try.…
Deine Mariner had a shocker dropping the last pass with the line open, but he made up for it moments later with a diving…
