What happened at David Peachey’s 250th game in round seven?
The South Sydney Rabbitohs fell to the New Zealand Warriors 18 points to 16 on Sunday 29 April, with the Warriors snatching victory in the final minute of play.
The crowd of 13,044 saw the Rabbitohs trail eight-nil at one stage to fight back to lead 16-eight, before the New Zealanders rallied to snatch the win with two tries in the final three minutes of play.
The Rabbitohs' first 20 minutes was poor compared to the second 20 minute period in the first half, with the Rabbitohs correcting the numerous handling and disciplinary problems that marred their game in the first quarter.
The Warriors opened the scoring in the eighth minute through halfback Grant Rovelli who intercepted a Joe Williams pass to race 70 metres and score. Tony Martin converted to take a six-nil lead. Martin's penalty goal extended the lead to eight.
The Rabbitohs struck back in the 29th minute when Nigel Vagana scored his fifth try of the season. John Sutton stripped the ball from Nathan Fien in a one-on-one tackle. The Rabbitohs attacked up the centre then sent the ball right. Williams put on a run-around play with Dean Widders before offloading to Vagana who scored in the right hand corner.
The players went to the break with the visitors up eight-four, but the Rabbitohs finished the half with wind in their sails. Front-rowers Roy Asotasi and Manase Manuokafoa were very strong in attack, making plenty of metres in the middle of the ruck. The Warriors had two tries disallowed in the opening half because of the controversial obstruction rule.
The Rabbitohs pulled it all together for 37 minutes of the second half, but the final three minutes proved to be deciding period.
Both sides were denied tries by the video referee in the opening 20 minutes of the second half, with Todd Byrne tackling Nathan Merritt in the air, and Merritt himself being denied with Jeremy Smith being ruled offside.
Merritt did score, however, in the 62nd minute, when he snapped up an intercept from Warriors five-eighth Michael Witt, and raced 85 metres to score under the posts. Williams converted to give the Rabbitohs a two-point lead.
The Rabbitohs were full of confidence and it showed, livening up their attack and solidfying their defence.
The Rabbitohs seemed to seal the win when Kiwi international David Fa'alogo scored in the 68th minute. The Rabbitohs looked lost, tossing the ball around looking for a gap. The ball ended up with David Peachey who put up a towering bomb. Merritt flew into the air, contesting the ball with Warriors fullback Wade McKinnon. The ball spilled loose, and Fa'alogo was Johnny-on-the-spot to touch down. Williams' second conversion gave the Rabbitohs a 16-eight advantage.
The video referee denied another try in the 71st minute, this time to Souths five-eighth Jeremy Smith, with Peachey being ruled offside this time.
The Warriors struck back in the 77th minute when McKinnon ran 60 metres to score under the sticks, the Martin conversion bringing the Warriors within two.
In the last minute of the game, Michael Witt put in a wide kick into the in-goal, and the ball sat up for winger Todd Byrne to dive on the ball and steal the win for the Warriors.
Luke Stuart, Peter Cusack and Shane Rigon played strongly in the second stanza, setting the platform for the Rabbitohs' revival, but the last minute try saw the game slip away.
Rabbitohs Head Coach Jason Taylor said: "It was very disappointing to finish that way. The disappointing thing was how hard we worked during the game to put ourselves in a position to win it.
"We need to learn how to finish off a game.
"I thought we played well. Our boys up the middle of the field were great, but we just kept inviting them back in."
Captain Peter Cusack said: "The effort was there from everyone, it was just our execution that let us down."
Captain Roy Asotasi, who was thought to have suffered an injury towards the end of the game, said: "I just jarred the back of my neck. I feel alright now."
New Zealand Warriors 18 (Grant Rovelli, Wade McKinnon, Todd Byrne tries; Tony Martin 3 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 16 (Nigel Vagana, Nathan Merritt, David Fa'alogo tries; Joe Williams 2 goals)
What is ‘number 7’?
'Number 7' refers to the player wearing the jersey with the number seven on his back, known as the halfback.
The halfback is the link between the forwards and the backs, he controls the play by standing at first receiver from the ruck and he traditionally feeds the scrums. The halfback is usually one of the first choice kickers in general play.
The Rabbitohs have used three halfbacks in 2007 in Joe Williams, Jeremy Smith and Eddie Paea.
What is the salary cap?
The salary cap is set limit that each Club can spend on its top 25 contracted players.
The Salary Cap serves two functions within a competition. The first is to assist in “spreading the playing talent” so that a few rich Clubs can not simply out-bid poorer teams for all of the best players.
The NRL believes that if a few Clubs were able to spend unlimited funds in such a way, that it would both reduce the attraction of games to fans, sponsors and media partners, due to an uneven competition, and drive some Clubs out of the competition.
Another reason for having the cap is to ensure that Clubs are not put into positions where they are forced to spend more money than they can afford in terms of player payments, just to be competitive.
What is SSFC-TV?
SSFC-TV is the Rabbitohs online television broadcasting channel which features exclusive interviews and insider views of the Club.
Regular features include Dean Widders’ Weekly Round Up, Champion’s Club, The Hot Seat with James MacSmith and Jason Taylor’s Team Announcement.
To view SSFC-TV, visit www.ssfc.tv.
What is the pronunciation guide?
It seems that a number of Rugby League commentators were having difficulty pronouncing some of the Rabbitohs players names, so the team from SSFC-TV produced a pronunciation guide.
The names that proved difficult to pronounce were the Polynesian names such as Fa’alogo, Asotasi, Vagana, Galuvao and, jokingly, Smith!
The pronunciation guide was distributed to the full Rugby League media list at the Rabbitohs, with the game’s commentators taking heed and learning to pronounce the team’s names correctly.
What is and who are the core group?
The core group is collection of six senior players at the Rabbitohs whom Head Coach Jason Taylor, Director of Athletic Performance Errol Alcott and the administration seek advice on issues affecting the players.
The core group for the 2007 season includes captains Peter Cusack, Roy Asotasi and David Kidwell, as well as senior players Nigel Vagana, Dean Widders and David Peachey.
What happened in round eight?
The Brisbane Broncos accounted for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in round eight of the NRL premiership in Brisbane on Friday 4 May, winning the game eight points to four in front of 27,387 fans.
In what was a battle of the forward packs, the sides scored one try a piece but two goals to Darren Lockyer made the difference. The match was fairly dour until the 80th minute when the Rabbitohs nearly stole the game, with John Sutton narrowly missing a try to win the game.
The first half was the quintessential defensive battle with the half time scoreboard displaying 0-0. Neither side gave in to the other, with set after set of solid defence taking place.
The Rabbitohs tried some adventurous play throughout the half, spreading the ball wide and kicking ahead for posible regathers, with no rewwards coming their way. Both sides were making metres up the centre of the park, with the play going from end to end. A Joe Williams 40/20 in the 27th minute gave the Rabbitohs their opportunity to score, with a repeat set the final result.
Prop Roy Asotasi was running wide a distributing the ball in the first half, with David Fa'alogo looking dangerous at time. Shane Rigon was making good metres out of dummy half. The Rabbitohs targetted Darren Lockyer and Karmichael Hunt for the Broncos, with centre Justin Hodges the only Bronco that looked dangerous in the opening stanza.
Amazingly, in the 39th minute, Darren Lockyer attempted to kick a field goal from over 40 metres out, displaying his frustration at the lack of attacking options his Broncos were showing.
A 45th minute Darren Lockyer penalty goal broke the deadlock, giving the home side a slight advantage. But the Rabbitohs began to attack and the holes were being found. In the 47th minute, John Sutton made a 60 metre break up the middle of the field, followed two minutes later by a break to Reece Simmonds, also up the middle, which was mysteriously called back when referee Paul Simpkins awarded a penalty to the Rabbitohs, failing to play the advantage.
The Broncos were denied a try to Sam Thaiday in the 61st minute by the video referee when David Stagg knocked the ball on over the line, but winger Darius Boyd did cross in right hand corner in the 68th minute. Lockyer's conversion gave the Broncos an eight-nil lead with only ten minutes left on the clock.
The Rabbitohs scored their only try in the 78th minute through centre Shannon Hegarty. Hegarty grubber kicked through for Daniel Irvine to collect the ball. He passed back out to Hegarty who scored.
The Rabbitohs threw the ball around like a hot potato attempting to score another try in the final minute of play. The ball eventually found space and numbers on the left, with Hegarty charging down the left touch line. He grubbered ahead with Broncos fullback Karmichael Hunt casually watching the ball into the in goal. John Sutton came from nowhere to dive at the ball, contesting it with Hunt, with the ball being bounced by Sutton centimetres above the turf.
Sutton was excellent in the second stanza, looking strong in attack every time he touched the ball.
Brisbane Broncos 8 (Darius Boyd try; Darren Lockyer 2 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 4 (Shannon Hegarty try)
What happened in round nine?
A disappointing South Sydney struggled to their third loss in a row on Saturday 12 May - a 16-10 defeat at the hands of the Raiders in front of 11,088 fans - a result coach Jason Taylor described as "pedestrian" and co-captain Peter Cusack labelled "pretty ordinary".
The Rabbitohs led 6-0 at half-time and 10-6 after 60 minutes but were run down by Canberra thanks to two tries in the last 12 minutes.
Souths dominated much of the contest and had a handful of tries disallowed. In the end it was the Raiders' scrambling defence and eight points (one try and two goals) to Canberra playmaker Todd Carney that made the difference.
"We should have won the game it is a simple as that," Rabbitohs coach Jason Taylor said after the game.
"There have been a few of those. I thought we looked threatening in attack in the first half but that wasn't the case in the second half. We were pedestrian at times."
After opening the season with three successive wins, the Club's best start to a year since 1972, Souths have won one of their next six games.
"It's probably a good time for the bye," Cusack said.
"We can have a break from footy, relax and come back and win the next 15. We got off to a good start but since then it has been one from six and that is pretty ordinary."
Tough South Sydney defence characterised the first half for the home side, with Nathan Merritt's trysaving tackle on his oppositve debutant Bronx Goodwin (the son of St George legend 'Lord Ted') in the 17th minute an example of that.
In his 150th first grade game Shannon Hegarty was denied a try in the 24th minute when he was held up by the Canberra defence over the line. But three minutes later he made up for it scoring the first points of the game. After a period of sustained attack in the Raiders 20m zone, interchange forward Jaiman Lowe breached the Raiders right hand side defensive line and offloaded to Hegarty who got the ball down despite the attention of two defenders. Halfback Joe Williams added the extras for the Rabbitohs to lead 6-0.
The half-time score of 6-0 could have been much greater after there were four disallowed tries against Souths.The most controversial of which was a ruling against a David Peachey four-pointer in the 25th minute after video referee Steve Nash ruled a Reece Simmonds tap-down from Joe Williams went forward. Another try went begging when Merritt failed to add to his two tries this season when he dropped the ball with the line in sight in the 12th minute.
Raiders fans had to wait until the 50th minute for their opening try, a 70m effort from David Milne in which he showed a good turn of speed and clever evasive skills to beat Souths custodian David Peachey. Halfback Todd Carney landed the conversion from in front of the posts to tie the scores up at 6-all.
A Joe Williams penalty goal, following a Raiders play-the-ball infringement, in the 57th minute, put the Rabbitohs in front 8-6. Williams added another penalty goal three minutes later, this time from an offside penalty to stretch his team's lead to 10-6.
A series of dropped balls on their own line from Souths then invited the Raiders back into the contest. Again it was Carney who tied the scores up with 11 minutes left on the clock through the Raiders' second four-pointer. Carney strolled over after taking a nice offload from former Bronco Neville Costigan. And when Carney converted his own try the Raiders led for the first time in the game 12-10.
An Adrian Purtell try in the 77th minute put the Raiders further ahead. On the last tackle Raiders captain Alan Tongue floated a kick high in the direction of Merritt's left hand wing, Milne leap high to catch it and managed to knock it into the hands of Purtell. Nash took a long time to judge whether the ricochet went backwards before awarding the try. Carney missed the conversion and South Sydney had a chance to force the game into golden point extra-time when they forced their way into the Raiders half in the final minute but it wasn't to be.
Souths co-captain Roy Asotasi, who was one of the Rabbitohs best alongside Jaiman Lowe, said it was a tough night at Telstra Stadium. "We have to work together. We started the season well but a lot of work needs to be done," he said.
"It was a frustrating night."
Souths lock-forward Dean Widders will have an x-ray on his left hand tomorrow after sustaining the injury in the 16th minute after a tackle on Raiders winger David Milne.
Canberra Raiders 16 (David Milne, Todd Carney, Adrian Purtell tries; Todd Carney 2 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 10 (Shannon Hegarty try; Joe Williams 3 goals)
What happened in round 11?
The Gold Coast Titans scored a home victory at Carrara Stadium on Saturday 26 May, defeating the South Sydney Rabbitohs 25-18 in front of 17,266 fans.
The Rabbitohs lost four tries to three, with prop Jaiman Lowe being sent off in the 77th minute after knocking out Brett Delaney.
The Titans opened the scoring in the fourth minute of play through former Rabbitoh Mark Minichiello. Minichiello scooped up a Josh Lewis grubber to score on the left hand side. Mat Rogers converted to give the home side an early six-point lead.
The Rabbitohs struck back nine minutes later through five-eighth Jeremy Smith. The Rabbitohs ate up the metres up the middle of the park through props and captains Peter Cusack and Roy Asotasi, along with second rower David Fa'alogo to set up the attacking position. Halfback Joe Williams then put in a deft grubber kick behind the line for Jeremy Smith to swoop and score a benefit of the doubt try awarded by the video referee. Williams converted to level the scores at six-all.
The Titans had all of the field position for the remainder of the half but the Rabbitohs' defence was strong in their own 20 metre area. The Titans had to go to the air to score, with Brett Delaney cleaning up a spilled Lewis bomb in the 30th minute to score a benefit of the doubt try. Rogers converted from in front to give the Titans a six-point advantage which they held until the break.
Despite having all of the field position, the Titans only scored two tries of which one came from a bomb. The Rabbitohs were making some good metres up the middle of the field and looked dangerous on the fringes through David Fa'alogo and Dean Widders. Poor ball handling kept the Rabbitohs under pressure throughout the half and the Rabbitohs had done well to restrict the Titans to two tries for the half.
The Rabbitohs capitalised on a Scott Prince in his own 20 metre area to post the next try through centre Fetuli Talanoa. An 11th hour replacement for Shannon Hegarty after he injured his back at the Rabbitohs training session on Friday night, Talanoa beat three defenders on a double second-man play orchestrated by Williams and fullback Reece Simmonds. Williams' conversion leveled the scores at 12-all.
Just four minutes later the Titans scored through captain Scott Prince. Prince stepped past three defenders to score, and Rogers' third conversion restored the home side's six-point advantage.
In the 68th minute, the Rabbitohs launched an attacking raid up the left side with Simmonds and winger Nathan Merritt linking beautifully, but the ball went to ground ruining the scoring opportunity.
The Titans scored in the 71st minute when Prince crossed for his second try, again stepping through the South Sydney defence at the line. Rogers converted to send the scoreline to 24-12.
The Rabbitohs gave themselves a sniff in the 74th minute when fullback Simmonds scored in the left hand corner after chiming into to the backline. Williams kicked the conversion from the left hand touch line to bring the Rabbitohs within six points with just five minutes left on the clock.
The Rabbitohs continued to pepper the Titans line in the final five minutes, with the Rabbitohs forwards making metres all over the park. The pressure valve was released in the 77th minute when replacement prop forward Jaiman Lowe punched Brett Delaney, knocking him out and earning himself a send off in the process.
In the final minute, Josh Lewis sealed the win for the Titans with a field goal.
The Rabbitohs played their hearts out throughout the entire match, but Scott Prince orchestrated the victory, controlling all of the Titans play.
Gold Coast Titans 25 (Scott Prince 2, Mark Minichiello, Brett Delaney tries; Mat Rogers 4 goals; Josh Lewis field goal)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 18 (Jeremy Smith, Fetuli Talanoa, Reece Simmonds tries; Joe Williams 3 goals)
What happened in round 12?
The Melbourne Storm defeated the South Sydney Rabbitohs 26 points to 10 at Olympic Park on Saturday 2 June in front of 11,211 fans, with the competition favourites too strong for their northern visitors.
With temperatures dropping to nine degrees throughout the match, the Storm scored four tries to the Rabbitohs' two in the icy conditions.
The Rabbitohs made one late change to their line up with 20-year-old debutant Issac Luke coming onto the interchange bench replacing the injured Shane Rigon.
The Rabbitohs applied all of the pressure in the opening five minutes, with the Storm returning serve for the next 10. The pressure paid off for the Storm, with winger Steve Turner scoring in the left hand corner. He danced around Rabbitohs winger Shannon Hegarty and carried Jeremy Smith and Nigel Vagana over the line to score. Cameron Smith converted from the touchline to give the home side a six-nil lead after 15 minutes.
The Storm were denied a try in the 19th minute when Matt King caused an obstruction, denying Turner his second try for the half.
The Rabbitohs bounced back in the 23rd minute when Dean Widders hit a hole and scored. The Rabbitohs capitalised on a repeat set earned by Nathan Merritt when Israel Folau played at a grubber kick from Merritt and the ball found touch about 30 metres from the Storm line. In the following set of six, Jeremy Smith ran to the line and popped a beautiful short ball to Widders to score his second try of the season. Merritt's conversion locked the scores up at 6-all.
The teams continued to trade blows for the remainder of the half, end-to-end football the flavour of the day, but neither side could breach the opposition's defence.
One of the only clean breaks made in the half was by Rabbitohs debutant Issac Luke, who added some much-needed spark to the Rabbitohs when he came on to the field in the 29th minute.
The Storm forwards were strong and they set the platform for the Victorians' attacking raids, but the Rabbitohs defence held strong both in the line and in the air, Storm halfback Cooper Cronk electing to continually bomb the Rabbitohs right hand side. Equally, the Rabbitohs were going to the air on the Storm's right hand side, with Israel Folau getting hammered a number of times in defence by the Rabbitohs chasers in Merritt, Fetuli Talanoa and David Fa'alogo.
The Rabbitohs forwards were making metres, especially prop Roy Asotasi, lock Widders and second-rower David Fa'alogo, with both getting through a mountain of work in the opening stanza. The Storm looked dangerous inside the Rabbitohs 30 metre zone, but the Rabbitohs defence held strong, with five-eighth Ben Rogers and winger Hegarty pulling off try-saving tackles in the first half.
The Rabbitohs opened the second half well, but were cruelly denied a try and let in a try themselves in the first three minutes. Nathan Merritt was denied a try by the video referee when he raced 50 metres to touch the ball down on what first looked like it was on the dead ball line. The video referee made his decision, with a further replay showing the ball grounded inside the in goal area. The Storm then turned around and scored a try from the ensuing set, with Matt King strolling over out wide after Shannon Hegarty raced up and left a gap out wide. Smith's conversion gave the Storm an early 12-6 advantage in the second half.
Cameron Smith kicked a penalty goal in the 54th minute after Fetuli Talanoa was ruled to have played the ball incorrectly, extending the Storm's lead to eight.
Storm veteran Matt Geyer was the next to score, beating three defenders in a 20 metre run to score. Smith converted to move the scores to 20-6.
The Rabbitohs struck back, giving them hope of a late revival, when Shannon Hegarty scored in the right hand corner in the 70th minute. The Rabbitoh threw the ball from touchline to touchline, with the ball finding Dean Widders in the centre of the field. He ran to the line and turned a ball inside to Luke Stuart, who attracted two defenders and through a flick pass over the top of the defence to Hegarty to score out wide. The conversion was unsuccessful taking the scores to 20-10 with nine minutes left on the clock.
David Fa'alogo made a long break in the 73rd minute for it to come to nothing, but the Rabbitohs were playing attacking football in a desperate bid for late points.
Storm five-eighth Greg Inglis scored a miraculous try in the final minute of play, having two grabs at a bomb and grounding the ball amazingly to seal the victory for the Victorians.
The Rabbitohs tried hard throughout the match with the final scoreline not reflecting the effort put in by the Rabbitohs, however the class of Greg Inglis shone throughout the game to help the Storm regain equal first place on the competition ladder.
Melbourne Storm 26 (Steve Turner, Matt King, Matt Geyer, Greg Inglis tries; Cameron Smith 5 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 10 (Dean Widders, Shannon Hegarty tries; Nathan Merritt goal)
What happened when Jaiman Lowe knocked out Brett Delaney?
In the 73rd minute of the match between the Rabbitohs and the Titans, Jaiman Lowe got up to play the ball, moved forward towards Brett Delaney who was standing at marker and punched him on the jaw, knocking him out cold.
Lowe was sent from the field for the misdemeanour, but explained after the match what happened to provoke the attack.
Lowe claimed that his testicles were grabbed by Delaney, and Lowe reacted in a physical way. Lowe regretted his actions but maintained that he was reacting to foul play from Delaney and didn’t strike out at him without provocation.
Lowe was subsequently suspended for four weeks for the hit. During his time away from the field, Lowe helped children with learning difficulties in a local South Sydney school.
What happened when John Sutton dislocated his shoulder?
The Rabbitohs were trailing the Brisbane Broncos 8-4 at Suncorp Stadium with only one minute left on the clock.
The Rabbitohs threw the ball around like a hot potato attempting to score what would be the winning try of the match.
The ball eventually found space and numbers on the left, with Shannon Hegarty charging down the left touch line.
He grubbered ahead with Broncos fullback Karmichael Hunt casually watching the ball into the in goal.
John Sutton came from nowhere to dive at the ball, contesting it with Hunt, with the ball being bounced by Sutton centimetres above the turf.
In attempting to ground the ball, Sutton dislocated his shoulder, resulting in him being taken from the field and missing many weeks of football.
What is the Book of Feuds?
The Book of Feuds is a book detailing the history of matches played between the Rabbitohs and that weekend’s opponents. A version has been written which is read to the players before they play that team.
It was an idea from Rabbitohs owner Russell Crowe to give the players an idea of the history and rivalry between them and their opposition.
Russell Crowe reads the passages, although captain David Kidwell, coach Jason Taylor and author Mark Courtney have also contributed to the readings throughout the 2007 season.
What happened in round 13?
A gutsy team effort in atrocious conditions snapped a five game losing streak for the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday 8 June.
In gusting winds and relentless rain South Sydney scored two tries to nil to defeat the Penrith Panthers 14-4 at Telstra Stadium. The scores were locked at 4-all at half-time before Souths winger Nathan Merritt added two penalty goals in the 62nd and 72nd minute to take the home side to an 8-4 lead.
But it was not until David Peachey scored his third try of the season in the 76th minute that the Rabbitohs secured their fifth win of the season. In the post-game press conference Rabbitohs coach Jason Taylor admitted to a trying time in the last few weeks but said that his side never lost their belief.
“I thought it was a great effort,” Taylor said.
“That win was a bit of a relief for us. We have been working really hard and training really hard the last few weeks but our results haven’t been reflecting that. We just needed that win to get the belief that we are going in the right direction.”
It was the Rabbitohs first win since their 10-6 defeat of the Cowboys in round six, and slots them back into the top eight. Defence was again the key for South Sydney, the shut out of the Panthers was the first time they have kept a team try-less since 1999 – and the first time since they were readmitted to the NRL competition in 2002.
In driving wind and pouring rain (that saw the postponement of the Jersey Flegg fixture) the Rabbitohs struck first in the sixth minute through a try to right winger Paul Mellor. The veteran chased through a clever Dean Widders kick and did well to ground the ball in the right hand corner. Nathan Merritt missed the conversion and Souths lead 4-0.
In a tough but often dour struggle that owed much to the conditions the Panthers had the better of the field position in the first half with the Rabbitohs barely venturing down into the visitors 20m zone after the first try. Stuart Webb was running and kicking effectively out of dummy half for the Rabbitohs while Luke Lewis was creating havoc out wide for the Panthers.
Penrith didn’t get on the scoreboard until the 32nd minute when Michael Gordon kicked a penalty goal from almost straight in front of the posts 20m out after Souths interchange forward Scott Geddes was penalised for holding down in the play-the-ball.
Gordon added another penalty on the stroke of half-time from a similar position to his first kick after Geddes was again penalised, this time for being offside after falling on a ball that had bounced off a team mate from a kick. And at half-time the score read 4-all.
After the break Merritt became more involved for Souths darting out of dummy half helping his forwards up the park. While David Peachey was faultless under the high ball in the very trying conditions.Merritt added a penalty of his own in the 62nd minute after Lewis was called offside at marker for a 6-4 scoreline in favour of the Rabbitohs. Merritt slotted another penalty 10 minute later after a Lewis high tackle on David Fa’alogo for an 8-4 lead.
It was a deserved try to Peachey in the 76th minute that finally saw South Sydney home. There was some doubt over the grounding of the ball and video referee Phil Cooley scrutinised a number of replays before awarding a benefit of the doubt try. Merritt converted from close to the sideline for the full-time scoreline of 14-4.
Panthers coach Matt Elliott praised the Rabbitohs near-perfect display of wet weather football after the game.
“In the conditions the game they came up with was outstanding,” he said.
“Their kicking game was good and to only come up with three errors was a credit to them.”
The win took the South Sydney Rabbitohs to 12 competition points.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 14 (Paul Mellor, David Peachey tries; Nathan Merritt 3 goals)
defeated
Penrith Panthers 4 (Michael Gordon 2 goals)
Versus (US) Schedule (ET/PT)
10/24/07 11:30pm – 12am
10/31/07 10:30pm - 11pm
10/31/07 11pm - 11:30pm
11/7/07 10pm - 10:30pm
11/12/07 11pm - 11:30pm
11/13/07 1:30am - 2am
11/14/07 2am - 2:30am
11/14/07 4:30pm - 5pm
11/14/07 10pm - 10:30pm
11/15/07 1am - 1:30am
11/17/07 6:30pm - 7pm
11/18/07 5pm - 5:30pm
11/27/07 4:30pm - 5pm
Star-TV (Canada) Schedule (ET)
20/11/07 9pm - 9:30pm
21/11/07 3am - 3:30am