Sydney Football Stadium
Mon Mar 19, 7:00pm
WIN 18-6
South Sydney Rabbitohs have defeated the Sydney Roosters in emphatic style tonight (Monday) at Aussie Stadium, knocking over their neighbours 18 points to six in front of 24,127 fans in the return of Monday Night Football. International centre Nigel Vagana scored two tries in his debut for the Rabbitohs, playing his role in a fantastic team effort. The Rabbitohs' defensive effort was something to behold, not allowing one line break throughout the entire match. The Rabbitohs played an outstanding first half, punishing the Roosters in defence and creating plenty of opportunities in attack. A dominant performance from halfback Joe Williams put the Rabbitohs 12 points ahead at the break. Williams scored the first try in the 15th minute. He charged towards the line from about ten metres out, dummied three or four times and slipped between Anthony Minichiello and Danny Nutley to score. Williams converted his own try to give the Rabbitohs a six-point lead. In the 17th minute, Williams kicked a booming 40-20 to give the Rabbitohs fabulous field position. From the ensuing set, Nigel Vagana scored in the 18th minute. Jeremy Smith put in a deft grubber kick to the right hand corner and Vagana charged through, collected the ball and planted it down centimetres inside the dead ball line. The video referee awarded the try and Williams' conversion from the sideline gave the red and greens the 12-point advantage. The Rabbitohs defence was excellent during the half and looked very dangerous in attack. The Roosters had their moments but errors from Braith Anasta, Minichiello and Craig Wing, and some deadly defence from South Sydney, thwarted their best attacking chances. Williams extended the lead to 14 with a penalty goal in the 47th minute. The Rabbitohs continued to cause the Roosters problems, with Williams making a huge break up field to set up a repeat set of six, and the team repelled two sets of attack from the Roosters on their own try line. Captain Peter Cusack was denied a try by the video referee in the 58th minute, before the Roosters responded with a try to halfback Josh Lewis two minutes later. Craig Fitzgibbon converted to bring the score to 14-8 in favour of Souths. Eight minutes later, Vagana scored his second try when he finished off a well-worked backline move. From dummy half Daniel Irvine found Williams who threw a lovely cut out pass to David Peachey who put Vagana in space to score. The Rabbitohs defence remained inpenetrable, sealing the win and the two competition points. Coach Jason Taylor was very happy with his team's performance. "We defended extremely well and we showed some promising signs in attack," Coach Taylor said. South Sydney's on-field package proved just as impressive as the one off it with the new look Rabbitohs beat arch-rivals Sydney Roosters 18-6 as Monday night football made a return to the NRL at a wet Aussie Stadium tonight. Dubbed the new silvertails of the competition following several big-money off-season signings, the Rabbitohs were never headed, racing in three tries to one to totally outclass a Roosters side still on 999 top grade wins. The new recruits all justified their hefty price-tags by playing key roles in the win, but just as vital was the effect they had on Joe Williams, Shannon Hegarty and Peter Cusack all showing the benefits of playing with some high class teammates. Playing behind a dominant pack led by Roy Asotasi and David Kidwell, Williams finally showed signs of living up to the hype that greeted his introduction to the NRL three years ago. His untested halves combination with Jeremy Smith was impressive as they played a leading role in all three of the Rabbitohs tries. The Roosters played into the hands of the opposition with their controversial one-marker policy proving a dud, hooker Daniel Irvine and Hegarty making easy metres straight up the middle throughout the match.
HT Vagana 2, Williams tries Williams 3 goals Crowd Referee Final Line Up Other FG Matches
Judiciary News
No one was charged out of the match.
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