30th May 2018
It was Souths biggest winning margin over our Auckland counterparts, as Souths forwards put a stamp on the premiership. What was amazing was how Souths were able to hit back with 12 men to take the lead and then pull away. We are now only 2 points off the competition lead now in 3rd place but also only a few losses from 9th. We still need 5 more wins to make the finals. And well on track at the halfway mark of the season.
Twin forward tries
Its been 42 years since the last time two twin forwards scored tries in the same match, but in 2018 it was Tom and George Burgess powering up the middle in a powerhouse display that are stamping them as the best pair of props across the competition. The offseason rest for George has done him wonders as his performances this season are returining to his 2014 best. While Tom is powering out from the shadow of brothers Sam and George.
Britt and Rodwell return
Its been a while but the calvery is starting to return. Dean Britt and Ky Rodwell returned from injury this week. Both had big roles in helping the Bears will their vital RG match. This is on the back Fuimaono's return last week. Reweti also came back but got injured once again.
Simon 6 try record
What a day out for our girls against Wentworthville as they continue along undefeated. It was a record romp over the last place. But the real standout was NSW Country rep Taleena Simon who notch up 6 tries equaling the Rabbitohs all grade record for most tries in a match.
Salary Cap Impact
Well its the halfway mark of the seaon and we are starting to see the impact of the new $9 mil player Salary Cap plus the adjustment to a 30 man squad plus 6 development players We saw a huge wave of players movements pre-season with the bigger clubs using that extra cash to poach players, but also bigger names players cash in on the 20% jump in salary cap. But it has been interesting that many of these players have not kicked on at the new clubs as expected. Many players coming off contract in 2019 are expecting to see the same benefits but contracts and salary cap space has been chewed up. Any clubs with % based contracts have been put in a dificult situation with these player contracts being over inflated at the new cap covers a Top 36 not Top 25 anymore.
Round 12 - Stat Attack
Statistically it was a powrfulbut average game against a top 4 team. Completion rates improved to 86% from 74% last week. Errors dropped to 5 from 12 last week. We gave away 15 penalties up from 10 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a poor level of 36.7m from 43.1m last week. Our missed tackles dropped to good level of 26 from 23 missed tackles last week. Opposition offloads increased to 6 from 4 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Jennings-Doueihi-Walker-Sutton (1-1-2-0) was dropped to 4 from 1 missed tackles last week. On the right side Graham-Gagai-Reynolds-Crichton (1-4-1-1) was improved to 7 from 8 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence TBurgess/Tatola-Cook-GBurgess/Clark-SBurgess/Murray (4-4-1-5) was dropped to 14 from 8 last week.
Our go forward this week improved to 1539m from 1185m last week. Tom Burgess, George Burgess, Cook, Sutton, Jennings, Graham, Walker and Hunt made 10+m per run. Crichton, Sutton, Cook, Tom Burgess, Sam Burgess, Jennings, Graham, Gagai and Inglis making 100+m in the match. Defensively Cook was our best in the tackling raking up 44 tackles. Sutton, Hunt, Clark and Tatola didn't miss a tackle.