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.
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Rafael Gravette
Guest
Two sides desperate for a win face off on Saturday night, with both Brisbane and South Sydney out of form and down on confidence. They must start winning now if they are to salvage anything from 2016 because another loss will all but end their finals chances.
Mike from tari
Guest
Souths were crap, you can't make 19 errors & not get pumped by a team that's struggling as well.
AJ Mithen
Expert
Fair call PNG. Cody Walker an honourable mention - he played a solo hand in a pretty ordinary Souths effort.
AJ Mithen
Expert
Cheers, glad you liked it!
PNG Broncos fan88
Guest
Good call AJ.
PNG Broncos fan88
Guest
Cody Walker above Roberts. Blair and Macca went ok too.
AJ Mithen
Expert
That's it from Sydney everyone, thanks for joining in. Head over to the homepage and enjoy more live sport coverage - there's always something going at The Roar!
AJ Mithen
Expert
Early news on Kahu is not good PNG, but I agree on tonight's showing the Panthers shouldn't hold many fears for your boys.
AJ Mithen
Expert
STATS AND VOTES POSSESSION: Souths 45%, Broncos 55% LINE BREAKS: Souths 4, Broncos 7 PENALTIES: Souths 5, Broncos 5 TACKLES: Souths 438, Broncos 374 RUN METRES: Souths 1692, Broncos 1803 ERRORS: Souths 18, Broncos 9 Crowd: 13,111. Player of the year votes: 3- Ben Hunt 2- Corey Oates 1- James Roberts
PNG Broncos fan88
Guest
Good run for our young interchange forwards, they have to step up in the remaining rounds. Hope Kahu's not that bad, we are short in the backs and need a bigger body like Oates as backup. Next training run against the Panthers should blow away the origin hangover.
AJ Mithen
Expert
FULL TIME - BRISBANE 30, SOUTHS 10 We are mercifully put out of our misery after a pretty ordinary second half. The Broncos won't care though, they have kept themselves in touch with the top four and given their +- a hefty boost as well. Souths dropped the game early with two critical errors inside their own 20 which were punished by Brisbane and the Broncos never looked back. They are the masters of keeping a lead and they went close on multiple occasions as well. Jai Arrow was great coming into the team to cover Corey Parker, knocking out 142 metres and making 34 tackles. Corey Oates scored twice and it felt like he could have had six tries - he's ruthless with the line ahead of him. James Roberts showed a bit after coming through a pretty flat patch. On the Souths side, it was pretty much Cody Walker and only Cody Walker in attack. He scored, made two line breaks and racked up just under 200 metres. Aaron Gray and Sam Burgess worked hard but the ray of light for Souths fans will be the performance of debutant Angus Crichton, who played strongly and showed he won't be out of place in the big time. That was only Brisbane's third win at ANZ Stadium since 2009, if you can believe it. They'd be hoping to add to that later in the year. So folks, Brisbane get themselves back on track and Souths look like they are in real trouble. What did you make of that game?
AJ Mithen
Expert
I have no stats to back me up, but opposition teams make a truckload of errors against the Broncos.
AJ Mithen
Expert
'77 It's been a good night for Hunt and Milford after a few tough weeks. Hunt in particular has been busy. Milford's defence has been outstanding tonight. Rabbitohs 10 Broncos 30
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Someone should find a way to bottle this game and sell it as an insomnia curing tonic.
AJ Mithen
Expert
'77 Not really much going on out there now, to be honest. The result in no doubt. Rabbitohs 10 Broncos 30
AJ Mithen
Expert
'74 Now a double knock on 10 out from the Broncos attacking line. Souths scrum and it's getting a bit sloppy out there as we dawdle to the finish line. Rabbitohs 10 Broncos 30
AJ Mithen
Expert
’72 Thomas Burgess loses the ball. Another giveaway from the Bunnies. Rabbitohs 10 Broncos 30
AJ Mithen
Expert
’70 Aaron Gray is in trouble after Anthony Milford hits him with what can only be described as a WWE swing combined with a cumberland throw. Everyone is ok though... Rabbitohs 10 Broncos 30
AJ Mithen
Expert
’70 STAT ALERT Souths have made FIFTEEN errors so far, with ten minutes left. They've just dropped their way out of this. Rabbitohs 10 Broncos 30
AJ Mithen
Expert
’69 TRY SOUTHS – Cody Walker scores to the right of the posts. He's been pretty much the only attacking light for Souths. He then misses the conversion. Rabbitohs 10 Broncos 30