The South Sydney Rabbitohs have thumped the Penrith Panthers after their bye round with an enormous 42-14 win to keep their finals hopes alive.
RABBITOHS SUBLIME ATTACK
The Rabbitohs having been put on the back foot in the opening 12 minutes down 8-0 struck back to score 42 unanswered points. Adam Reynolds had his best performance of the season, being the halves maestro that Souths had been needing this season he orchestrated the attack with his superb kicking game setting up 3 tries, forcing numerous line drop outs and converting all 7 tries to complete an amazing performance. Not only was Reynolds on song the forwards were relentless after conceding points early, Rabbitohs turned the game into a heated battle with Angus Crichton making 4 tackle busts and Sam Burgess leading from the front with a try , 37 tackles and 100 run metres coming back from a sinbin earlier in the match.
FIVE-TRY ALEX JOHNSTON
A five try haul from the South Sydney winger Alex Johnston was the highlight of the match, with Panthers ahead 8-0 a misjudged long pass from Matt Moylan opened the field up for Johnston to break away for a 70 metre try. His second try of the day came from a second phase play off a Reynolds midfield bomb cut out by Codey Walker for him to score in the corner. Just before the half was over the South’s winger wasn’t finished yet, Sam Burgess broke through the line and offload to flying fullback Walker who then place a quick kick down field for Johnston to get a first half hat-trick. Straight after the break in the 41st minute a superb team break away from Crichton had Reynolds eventually get the ball and kick to Burgess parked on the left edge who was then able to offload to the winger for his 4th try of the day. The vision of bench hooker Damien Cook scooting out of dummy half then sent a pass to Johnston, the winger sprinted down the left side edge and was too quick for Penrith players to cover and had the supporters screaming as he equaled the club record held by former Rabbitohs winger Nathan Merritt.
PANTHERS LOOSE PASS HAS HUGE CONSEQENCES
The match was fired up by a 15th minute scuffle between Souths lock Sam Burgess and Panthers winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. Both were sent to the sin bin and in turn switched the home side on. After the double sin binning of players the pass from Moylan 2 minutes after for Johnston to gather started the avalanche of Rabbitohs dominance. After the return of the players from the sin bin Sam Burgess was outstanding running harder and faster targeting the Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary setting up a try and making a huge impact for the rest of the game. The Penrith Panthers were unable to contain the brute strength of the South Sydney forward pack, giving away cheap penalties and costly errors.
PERSISTANT KICK PRESSURE
Throughout the game the force applied was through the forwards but the kick pressure played a bigger part in South Sydney’s win. Adam Reynolds put in 15 kicks in the match including cross field, bombs and grubbers all making Panthers work hard out of their end and in the air. Reynolds was so accurate with 460 kick metres and converting all his teams tries which went towards a huge total in the end.
SCOREBOARD
South Sydney Rabbitohs 42
Tries: Alex Johnston (5), Braidon Burns, Sam Burgess
Goals: Adam Reynolds 7/7
Penrith Panthers 14
Tries: Matt Moylan, Josh Mansour
Goals: Nathan Cleary 2/2 Penalty Goals: 1/1
