South Sydney overcame the loss of Latrell Mitchell to defeat St George Illawarra 24-12 in an error-strewn clash at Accor Stadium.
The Bunnies lost their talismanic fullback just 14 minutes into the game with a suspected hamstring injury, with Jason Demetriou confirming after the game that it was on the same leg that ended Mitchell’s season in 2020.
“He says he doesn’t feel too bad so he’ll go for a scan tomorrow,” said Demetriou.
“He had that a couple of years ago and probably still has a few demons.”
Mitchell got up uncomfortably from a tackle with Tariq Sims and Aaron Woods, leading to initial fears that he had aggravated a knee injury that the Origin star had been nursing all week.
Blake Taaffe, himself returning after a stint on the sidelines, was named on the bench as a precaution should Mitchell’s knee flare-up and found himself pressed into action early on.
“Latrell did it in the run, he knew straight away that he’d hurt his hammy,” added the coach.
“The good thing is that we got him off without doing any damage. He knew Blake was there as well so we didn’t have to push it.
Fox League later reported that Souths were angry at the state of the pitch, which recently hosted the Lost City underage music concert and was showing signs of wear after Sydney’s horrendous recent weather.
After the game, the Souths coach refused to be drawn on the Accor Stadium surface.
“The boys never said anything about it but you can see they’ve relaid some parts of it. It’s one of those things,” said Demetriou.
The game missed Mitchell and his spark, with long periods where neither side looked like scoring and, indeed, holding possession for much time at all.
The second half was a horror show: Souths completed at less than 60% with six errors, but that was bush league compared to the Dragons, who had less than 50% and a staggering nine mistakes.
The Bunnies, who have struggled with their completion rates all year, were good enough to overcome a team that decided to go even worse.
Demetriou said that the two points was all that mattered given his side’s difficult start to the year.
“In all fairness, we’re 1-3 coming and there’s the anxiety where you really want the two points,” said the Souths coach.
Our defence was outstanding and I’m disappointed to leak that try at the end because our defence deserved just six points against it.
“They had to be good because we were pretty dumb at times in the second half.
“We could have kicked on if we’d had stayed at it a bit longer. It was a bit nervy but two points is what we came here for.”
His Dragons counterpart, Anthony Griffin, was circumspect about his team’s performance.
“It’s a missed opportunity,” he said. “We were pretty solid for long periods but that second half we had 9 errors, a lot of them in our own end.
“They weren’t good either and turned the ball over a bit, but once we got back into the game we never gave ourselves a chance. That was the story of the game.”
Griffin saw signs of progress in his side, who have not won since Round 1 but have endured a horror draw that has seen them cop hefty defeats off Penrith, Cronulla, Parramatta and now South Sydney in consecutive weeks.
“Tonight, for long periods, we were better than last week in how we were going after the game,” said Griffin.
“We’re a good side but we’re down on confidence and we have to keep going.
“We have to get ourselves into a position where we play a full 80 minutes and earn a win. We had that opportunity tonight.
“When we do that, we’ll win three, four or five, but at the moment we’re beating ourselves and learning tough lessons.
“We have to learn and when we do we’ll get what we deserve, but at the moment, we’re getting what we deserve for the errors that we make.
Souths started like they meant business. Jai Arrow stood in the tackle and offloaded to Damien Cook, who came up with the step and speed that has been sorely lacking in recent years.
He was nearly held, but shook off a Dragons defender to find Campbell Graham and he offloaded to Latrell Mitchell to open the ledger for the Bunnies.
It was spectacular stuff on and off the field – the fighter jets from the Royal Easter Show did laps above Accor Stadium – and after the withdrawal of Latrell Mitchell, Blake Taaffe wasted no time in making an impact, racing down the sideline before ejecting the ball between his legs to save it from going out.
Campbell Graham had one wiped off, Zac Lomax bombed one for the Dragons and it was impossible to look away.
The game needed a settling in period – it would have been hard to keep up the level of action – and it got one, with the sides trading sets.
It would have suited the Dragons, and though they continually struggled to create anything meaningful, their defence had at least stopped the Bunnies’ progress.
Mat Feagai was impressing on the left for St George Illawarra and created the conditions for their attack to get going with a superb bustling run, but none of his teammates went with him.
On the back of his run, the Dragons had half chances – a play the ball that left Andrew McCullough with a crash over opportunity, a last tackle option that they passed straight to a Bunnies player – and they were punished for their profligacy.
Lachlan Ilias lurched at the line and won the quick ruck, allowing Keoan Koloamatangi to do what McCullough could not. Blake Taaffe, deputising for Mitchell with the boot as well as at the back, added the goal and took the teams to the sheds at 10-0.
St George Illawarra had to score first in the second half and did. It was a confusing passage of play – several passes went to ground – but Moses Mbye was eventually able to make the most of a poor attempted tackle from Koloamatangi to get the Dragons on the board.
Lomax, not for the first time, made an error and undid all the good work. Souths can be devastating when it clicks and, as is increasing week by week, it was Ilias who incited the move.
He drew the contact and found Koloamatangi, then Blake Taaffe who tapped on to Campbell Graham to score untouched.
The standard dropped considerably in the second half, with neither side able to hold the ball for a prolonged period of errors. It was a mercy when Souths decided to give up on attacking and take the two, extending the lead to two converted tries. Ilias created another for Taane Milne before Jayden Su’A got a consolation in the final seconds.
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