A last-minute field goal from Adam Reynolds has given South Sydney a thrilling 21-20 win over Penrith on Friday night, lifting the Rabbitohs into the NRL’s top eight.
Leading 20-14 with four minutes to go, the Panthers looked to have forced golden point when Nathan Cleary converted Michael Oldfield’s late try from the sideline.
But the Rabbitohs showed great composure in setting up for Reynolds’ game-winner, with Cody Walker and Kyle Turner providing strong runs in the lead-up to his 19-metre shot.
Walker was among the visitors’ best at Pepper Stadium, scoring a crucial try before halftime and setting up his halves partner in Reynolds soon after resumption.
A depleted Panthers outfit failed to make up for the absence of Matt Moylan, Peta Hiku and Waqa Blake on club-imposed bans.
South Sydney jumped out to an 8-0 lead on the back of Sam Burgess’ opening try, only for the Panthers to steal the momentum with two tries of their own.
First debutant Malakai Watene-Zelezniak set one up for younger brother Dallin, before fellow rookie Corey Harawira-Naera latched onto a Nathan Cleary pass soon after.
But Walker turned the game single-handedly in a 10-minue period bridging the first and second half, which began when he combined with John Sutton on a run-around play in the 36th minute.
The classy five-eighth then gave his team the ascendancy when he stepped past a number of defenders and then found a straightening Reynolds soon after the break.
Penrith had a handful of opportunities to lock up the scores but were frustrated by a desperate defence.
The loss for the Panthers, who were also without injured Bryce Cartwright and Tyrone Peachey leaves them outside the top eight with just two wins from their opening six games.
3_Hats SSTID 2014
Roar Rookie
I am so sick of every single news media outlet on the internet, the press, radio broadcasts and also on BOTH Channel 9 and Fox Sports talking about how the poor pathetic panthers had players missing. NOT one of them bothered to mention a fact that the Rabbitohs had our Kangaroo Fullback and arguably the most explosive player in Greg Inglis out Plus BOTH of our First Choice centres in Aaron Gray, City Rep and Hymel Hunt OUT. In their place in the backline were 3 Rookies who will improve with more experience. In total Souths have 12 Rookies in our 25-Man squad with 6 of them playing last Night. In theory, a Rookie is any player who has played less than about 40 or 50 games. The last 6 weeks for Souths have been very hard lessons learned and to be 3 wins and 3 losses when everyone expected us to be 1 and 5 is a fantastic effort, Souths have had a terrible time with injuries so far this season so it has forced us to use 25 players already this season because of that.
kk
Roar Pro
Statistically and emotionally Adam Reynolds is the heart of South Sydney. I love the way he plays the game. Skilled , courageous and intelligent.