Western Sydney Stadium
Thu Sep 10, 7:50pm
Dargan and Denniss were trimmed 24 hours before the game. Paulo and Rodwell were 18th men.
WIN 26-24
A couple of individual pieces of brilliance from Wests Tigers star Benji Marshall wasn't quite enough to drag his side over the line as they went down 26-24 to South Sydney on Thursday night in a game marred by three sin bins and one all-in brawl. First points came after a Twal error put Souths in range in the 10th minute and fast hands on the right side put Dane Gagai outside Tommy Talau and Asu Kepaoa for the first try. Reynolds added a penalty goal in the 22nd minute. 8 nil. Then Souths got back in range with a big set off the restart. Cook shot from dummy half to put Cody Walker between two defenders and Corey Allan backed up to score. 14 nil. Souths made it three scores in as many sets without the Tigers touching the ball as they spread it wide off the restart and Alex Johnston burned the Tigers right edge for pace to set up a supporting Campbell Graham. 20 nil. But as they did a week earlier against the Storm after dominating early, Souths let their foot off the pedal. A beautiful short side play from Harry Grant put Luke Garner over in the 33rd minute while a bullet cut-out pass from Marshall four minutes later put Tommy Talau over almost untouched to make it an eight-point game at the break. 20 to 12. The Tigers were building nicely into an attacking set early in the second half but it was brought undone by a Gagai intercept with the winger streaking 60 before some desperation defence rounded him up. Twal however came up with a professional foul and was sin-binned in the 49th minute. A few minutes later, Gagai was penalised soon after and threw the ball at Brooks, who ran after Gagai and threw a punch sparking an all-in brawl which saw both men sin-binned for punching, reducing the Tigers to 11 on the field and Souths to 12. The Tigers survived eight minutes, before a beautiful in goal kick by Burgess gave Souths a repeat set, and Graham playing right wing while Gagai was off the field, scored off a sweeping backline play. 26 to 12. Brooks bagged a stunner just moments after he returned to the field, kicking ahead a David Nofoaluma grubber and regathering to keep the Tigers in it at 26-18 with nearly 20 minutes remaining. They went back-to-back with the aid of a late set penalty to get in range and a glorious looping Marshall cut-out ball to rookie winger Kepaoa with Doueihi's touchline conversion making it 26-24. Johnston dropped a simple pass with the line open and just over 10 minutes to play and a frantic Rabbitohs had to endure some relentless attacking plays from the Tigers over the closing stages but a Marshall attacking grubber with a bit too much weight on it in the final three minutes proved costly. Marshall and Harry Grant showed just what the club will be missing next year with exceptional performances to help the team recover from a very early 20-0 deficit to almost force an unlikely comeback win for the second week running. For Souths, Damien Cook was at his scheming best and Campbell Graham is making a strong case to be included in Brad Fittler's extended State of Origin squad post-season with another two tries in a strong all-round display. The win propels Souths cements a semifinal spot, and keeps their top-four chances alive while the loss is the final nail in the 2020 season for Michael Maguire's men. While happy to come away with a crucial two points, Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett again felt his side was its own worst enemy at times. "It was entertaining - it wasn't for me but I'm sure it was for the fans," Bennett quipped. "You think that (it's looking comfortable) at 20-nil, you're thinking that but to the Tigers credit they put the effort in and kept coming. They didn’t seem to lack any belief and in the end they made a game of it. The last 50 minutes was a tighter match and they kind of had the run of the game. We just showed for 29 minutes what we can do then let ourselves down with mistakes, dropped balls, all of a sudden looked like we couldn't beat them. Our number one priority right now is to keep as many players healthy as we can; there's nothing wrong with scratching out a win… it doesn't have to be pretty."
10 min 6-0 D.Gagai try Reynolds goal
21 min 8-0 Reynolds goal
23 min 14-0 C.Allan try Reynolds goal
25 min 20-0 Graham try Reynolds goal
32 min 20-6
37 min 20-12
HT 20-12
58 min 26-12 Graham try Reynolds goal
61 min 26-18
65 min 26-24
Graham 2, D.Gagai, C.Allan tries
Reynolds 5 from 5 goals
50 min Gagai, Dane 10SB Punching
Referee B.Cummins
Crowd 3,801 (Match played with 25% capacity restricted attendance due to COVID-19)
Scrums 6-5 (1H 3-1 )
Penalities 3-4 (1H 1-2 )
6 Again 2-2 (1H 1-1 )
Final Line Up -
Min Tac Pe 6A MT LB Rn DR m Er OL K TA T G/A FG
Flbk - 1 - Allan, Corey 80 3 - - 1 - 17 1 137 1 1 - - 1 - -
RWng - 5 - Gagai, Dane 70 8 1 - - 1 16 - 217 1 1 1 - 1 - - [0-50,60-80]
RCnt - 4 - Marsters, Steven 59 9 2 - 1 - 10 - 86 1 - - - - - - [0-59]
LCnt - 3 - Graham, Campbell 80 21 - - 2 1 16 1 176 1 - - - 2 - -
LWng - 2 - Johnston, Alex 80 5 - - - 1 8 - 120 1 - - 1 - - -
5/8 - 6 - Walker, Cody 80 16 - 1 3 1 8 - 59 1 - 3 3 - - -
Half - 7 - Reynolds, Adam 80 9 - - 5 - 11 - 75 1 - 14 - - 5/5 - (c)
Prop - 8 - Knight, Liam 50 23 1 - - - 17 - 172 - 1 - - - - - [0-24,54-80]
Hook - 9 - Cook, Damien 80 58 - - 1 - 8 5 52 - 1 1 - - - -
Prop - 10 - Burgess, Tom 50 26 - - - - 19 - 178 - - 1 - - - - [0-24.54-80]
SRow - 11 - Su'A, Jaydn 80 26 - - 1 - 16 - 134 - 1 - - - - -
SRow - 12 - Sironen, Bayley 80 39 - - - - 13 - 122 - - - - - - -
Lock - 13 - Murray, Cameron 59 35 - - 1 1 9 - 87 - - - - - - - [0-29,50-80]
Int - 14 - Nicholls, Mark 30 23 - - 1 - 7 - 85 - - - - - - - [24-54]
Int - 15 + Cartwright, Jed 21 6 - - 1 - 5 - 47 1 1 - - - - - [59-80]
Int - 16 - Mago, Patrick 21 16 - 1 2 - 2 - 17 1 - - - - - - [29-50]
Int - 17 - Koloamatangi, Keaon 30 24 - - - - 8 - 80 1 - - - - - - [24-54]
347 4 2 19 5 1851 10 6 20 4 4 5/5 -
Completion Rate - 30/40 75%
Opposition Offloads - 10
Effective 1st Tackles
0 min 13m KO
1 min 16m Reynolds kick COF
3 min 3m SCR / Reynolds kick
5 min 16m WT Err SCR / SS Err(Walker) SCR
7 min 7m DGagai kick Walker kick
9 min 7m Reynolds kick COF
10 min 0m WT Err / WT-6A / TRY
13 min 67m Reynolds kick OOF
15 min 5m WT Err / Reynolds kick COF
16 min 14m Reynolds kick
18 min 5m Reynolds kick
21 min 0m WT Err SCR / WT-6TG / P GOAL
23 min 0m TRY
25 min 0m TRY
28 min 40m Reynolds kick 9m SS P(Marsters)
29 min 78m SS Err(Koloamatangi)
30 min 79m DO 68m SS P(Marsters) / (WT TRY)
34 min 36m KO 11m / SS-6S(Mago) / (WT TRY)
37 min 15m KO
39 min 35m Walker kick
WT Err
half time
41 min 21m Reynolds kick COF
42 min 11m Reynolds kick
44 min 22m Walker kick COF
46 min 30m WT Err SCR WT-6A / SS Err(CAllan) SCR
49 min 70m WT Err WT-6TG P-10SB / SS Err(Mago) 18m / SS P-10SB(DGagai)
53 min 29m WT Err SCR / SS Err(Marsters)
55 min 38m Reynolds kick
57 min 0m Burgess kick CIG
58 min 0m TRY
60 min 26m Reynolds kick COF
62 min 16m KO
63 min 70m Reynolds kick COF 20m / SS P(Knight) / (WT TRY)
66 min 11m KO
68 min 0m Cook kick CIG
70 min 7m SS NO TRY SS Err(Johnston) SCR
72 min 28m P / SS Err(SuA)
73 min 16m WT Err SCR / SS Err(Gagai)
75 min 74m SS Err(Graham) 55m / SS-6A(Walker)
76 min 75m WT Err / SS Err(Cartwright)
78 min 23m Reynolds kick SCR
WT Err /
Average effective 1st tackle location
- 26.0m - for the whole match
- 22.2m - 1st half
- 30.0m - 2nd half
Other First Grade Matches
32-20 StAu Manly b Canterbury
20-2 Penr Penrith b Parramatta
37-8 Woll Canberra b St Geo-Ill
18-6 Robi Gold Coast b Brisbane
42-12 SCG Syd Rstrs b Newcastle
36-20 SunS Melbourne b Nth Qld
22-14 Koga Cronulla b Warriors
W D L Diff PT
PENRITH 16 1 1 +237 33
MELBOURNE 15 - 3 +238 30
SYD RSTRS 13 - 5 +266 26
PARRAMATTA 13 - 5 +86 26
CANBERRA 12 - 6 +106 24
SOUTHS 11 - 7 +127 22
NEWCASTLE 10 1 7 +53 21
CRONULLA 10 - 8 +26 20
Wests-Tig 7 - 11 -33 14
Manly 7 - 11 -104 14
Warriors 7 - 11 -115 14
Gold Coast 7 - 11 -165 14
St Geo-Ill 6 - 12 -58 12
Nth Qld 4 - 14 -148 8
Brisbane 3 - 15 -326 6
Canterbury 2 - 16 -178 4
Judiciary News
Rabbitohs winger Dane Gagai has been charged by the NRL's Match Review Committee with grade one striking following last night's victory over the Wests Tigers. The base penalty for the offence is 200 points. Gagai also incures a 20% loading for a non-similar charge resulting in the full charge of 240 points. Gagai has since taken the early guilty plea getting a 25% discount or 180 points. He will miss one game with 80 carryover points.
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