Fri Mar 20, 7:30pm
Late Changes
Ben Lowe replaced David Kidwell in the starting side, with Kidwell dropping back to the bench. Gareth Crossman again dropped out of the 18 man squad.
LOSS 8-14
The South Sydney Rabbitohs fell to the Parramatta Eels in round two of the Telstra Premiership tonight (Friday), going down 14 points to 8 at ANZ Stadium in front of 20,871 Members and supporters. The scores were locked at eight-all in the first half, with a lone Eels try proving the difference in a tightly fought battle. The Rabbitohs struck first, peppering the Eels line with a few attacking raids, which paid off for halfback Chris Sandow who scored the opening points. Sandow put up a towering bomb which couldn't be diffused by the Eels, leaving Sandow to clean up the ball in the in-goal area to score. Issac Luke converted to give the Rabbitohs a six-nil lead after only five minutes. The Eels struck back just four minutes later when lock-forward Feleti Mateo spun out of a tackle on the Rabbitohs' line. Luke Burt converted the try to level the scores at six-all. The Eels hit the lead in the 20th minute when Luke Burt kicked a penalty goal, the Rabbitohs then matching suit by kicking a penalty goal of their own through Luke. The scores were locked at eight-all at the break. The Eels seemed to be making easy metres through the middle of the ruck, an area in which the Rabbitohs were so tight the previous week against the Roosters. The Rabbitohs did not look quite as organised and looked flat in attack. The Rabbitohs had opportunities to mount some attacking raids in the second half but nothing came to fruition. Both Nathan Merritt and Rhys Wesser pulled off some try-saving defence, however in the 61st minute of play, winger Joel Reddy crossed in the left hand corner to give the Eels a six-point advantage after Burt's conversion. The Rabbitohs had a couple of scoring opportunities in the final stages of the match but couldn't finish them off, leaving the final score at 14-8 in favour of the away team. Rabbitohs Head Coach Jason Taylor said after the match: "The opposition deserved the points. We just didn't have the zip that we had last week." "The short week in preparation didn't help. Playing on Sunday in hot conditions then having to back up on Friday night hurt us. "We didn't play with any speed which made us easy to defend. After last week we needed to build our game again and we tried to do that. "In saying all of that, we still only got beaten by a try, we only had a couple of tries scored against us two weeks in a row now, which is very pleasing." Captain Roy Asotasi said: "We struggled to get out of first gear tonight. We got dominated around the ruck and our forwards weren't making the inroads we did last week."
5 min 6-0
9 min 6-6
20 min 6-8
24 min 8-8
61 min 8-14
Sandow try
Luke 2 from 2 goals
Crowd 20,871
Referee S.Hayne / G.Badger
Penalities 6-5
Scrums 8-5
Min Tac Pe MT LB HU DR m Er OL K
Wesser 60 2 - - - 18 1 157 1 2 -
Merritt 80 6 - 3 1 7 2 78 - - 1
Best 80 15 - - - 9 2 83 1 2 1
Corrigan 80 21 - 5 - 8 2 44 1 - -
Talanoa 80 2 - - - 10 4 63 - - -
Sutton 80 13 1 1 - 13 - 106 2 2 10
Sandow 80 21 1 10 - 3 - 13 1 - 14
Stuart 57 30 - 1 - 16 - 126 - - -
Luke 53 26 1 2 - 7 4 54 - 1 -
Asotasi(c) 63 23 - 1 - 11 - 87 1 2 -
B.Lowe 71 35 - - - 9 - 61 1 1 -
McPherson 47 28 - - - 10 - 64 - - -
Faalogo 46 26 1 3 - 14 - 91 1 - 1
Kidwell 34 18 - 4 - 10 - 92 - 2 1
Pettybourne 52 29 1 2 - 11 - 99 1 - -
J.Lowe 32 16 - - - 12 - 76 - 1 -
Simpson 44 18 - 3 - 7 4 52 - - -
TOTAL 329 5 35 1 10 13 28
Completion Rate - 34/43
Other FG Matches
16-14 Lang Brisbane b Melbourne
42-14 Town Nth Qld b Wests-Tig
28-4 Bruc Sydney b Canberra
16-10 Woll St Geo-Ill b Gold Coast
28-26 Penr Bulldogs b Penrith
26-24 Brok Warriors b Manly
24-12 Ende Newcastle b Cronulla
W D L B Diff PT
WARRIORS 2 - - - +10 4
BRISBANE 2 - - - +3 4
SOUTHS 1 - 1 - +34 2
NTH QLD 1 - 1 - +27 2
BULLDOGS 2 - - - +24 2**
GOLD COAST 1 - 1 - +8 2
ST GEO-ILL 1 - 1 - +5 2
MELBOURNE 1 - 1 - -1 2
Parramatta 1 - 1 - -2 2
Cronulla 1 - 1 - -4 2
Sydney 1 - 1 - -16 2
Wests-Tigers 1 - 1 - -20 2
Newcastle 1 - 1 - -2 -
Penrith - - 2 - -10 -
Manly - - 2 - -24 -
Canberra - - 2 - -32 -
Judiciary News
Nathan Merritt was charged on the weekend. Nathan has pleaded guilty to a grade two Dangerous Contact - Legs/Feet Contact charge, meaning he will miss this Sunday's clash with the Newcastle Knights. Merritt received 125 points for the incident, equating to a one match suspension with 25 carry over points. The base penalty for the charge is 250 points, but the 25% discount for an early guilty plea plus another 25% discount for being seven years incident-free saw the penalty reduced to 125 points.
NYC Round 2
v Parramatta
WIN 38-22
In the Toyota Cup, the South Sydney Rabbitohs have defeated the Parramatta Eels 38 points to 16 at ANZ Stadium. Both Junior Vaivai and Cameron Pitman scored first half doubles to set up the victory for the home team.
0-4 09 min
4-4 15 min
10-4 19 min
14-4 26 min
20-4 38 min
20-10 44 min
26-10 56 min
32-10 61 min
32-16 71 min
38-16 75 min
38-22 80 min
Pitman 2, Vaivai 2, Joseph, Takairangi, Judd tries
Vaivai 2 from 4, Reynolds 3 from 3 goals
Other NYC Matches
48-14 Lang Melbourne b Brisbane
22-6 Town Wests-Tig b Nth Qld
26-16 Bruc Canberra b Sydney
30-28 Woll Gold Coast b St Geo-Ill
34-26 Penr Bulldogs b Penrith
52-4 Brok Manly b Warriors
24-22 Ende Cronulla b Newcastle
W D L B Diff PT
MANLY 2 - - - +66 4
SOUTHS 2 - - - +52 4
CANBERRA 2 - - - +50 4
MELBOURNE 2 - - - +36 4
GOLD COAST 2 - - - +28 4
CRONULLA 2 - - - +6 4
BULLDOGS 1 - 1 - -10 2
NTH QLD 1 - 1 - -12 2
Parramatta 1 - 1 - -14 2
Wests-Tig 1 - 1 - -24 2
St Geo-Ill - - 2 - -4 -
Penrith - - 2 - -12 -
Newcastle - - 2 - -28 -
Brisbane - - 2 - -38 -
Sydney - - 2 - -46 -
Warriors - - 2 - -50 -
NRL Club Championship
W D L B Diff PT
SOUTHS 3 - 1 - +86 6
Gold Coast 3 - 1 - +36 6
Melbourne 3 - 1 - +35 6
Cronulla 3 - 1 - +2 6
Manly 2 - 2 - +42 4
Canberra 2 - 2 - +18 4
Nth Qld 2 - 2 - +15 4
Bulldogs 3 - 1 - +14 4 **
Parramatta 2 - 2 - -16 4
Brisbane 2 - 2 - -35 4
Warriors 2 - 2 - -40 4
Wests-Tigers 2 - 2 - -44 4
St Geo-Ill 1 - 3 - +1 2
Newcastle 1 - 3 - -30 2
Sydney 1 - 3 - -62 2
Penrith - - 4 - -22 -
NSW Cup Rd2
v Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
WIN 34-6
With nine out of seventeen players debutants the Bears were a force to be reckoned with in their season opener against the Sharks on Sunday. NSW and Australian dummy-half Craig Wing was one of the fresh faces, a late inclusion for Norths at Forshaw Park, wearing the number 22 jersey, in a dominant 34-6 win. Norths were first to score. David Tyrrell offloaded to Luke Capewell who scored Leaving the Bears 6-0 ahead. Soon after Atelea Vea scored for Cronulla to make it even at 6-6. The ball then went through the hands of the North Sydney backline – Luke Capewell to Samu Wara to Beau Champion to Reece Robinson, who scored in the corner to make it 10-6 to Norths before the halftime break. A sin-binning to Norths Beau Champion came late in the second half, but on his return he found himself bumping off a defender to pass to Reece Robinson who ran 20m to score and make it 14-6 to Norths. A misjudged catch by Cronulla off a bomb landed the ball into the hands of captain Sean Dalton to score and make it 20-6. Luke Capewell then seized on a loose ball and ran 60m to score, 24-6. Young halfback Justin Hunt then put in a grubber kick which was mishandled by Cronulla, leaving Sean Dalton again to score, 28-6. Then Beau Champion flick passed to Reece Robinson who found space down the wing. Drawing the fullback he passed to Samu Wara to score the final try to win 34-6. Justin Hunt, Beau Champion and Craig Wing were the successful goal kickers. A lot of strong performances to start the season, but perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Bears performance was restricting the opposition to one try. Luke Capewell was great in attack. Reece Robinson did some great things on the wing. Garret Crossman and Michael Greenfield were strong up-front. David Tyrell worked hard. Samu Wara was safe at the back and Beau Champion was also heavily involved. Alternating between dummy-half and lock, Wing impressed working very hard in defense and playing the full 80 minutes.
0-6
6-6
10-6
14-6
20-6
24-6
28-6
34-6
Capewell 2, Robinson 2, Dalton 2, Wara tries
Justin Hunt, Champion, Wing goals
Other NSW Cup Matches
36-30 Birc Wests b Balm-Ryde
32-26 Wyon Central C b Shellhrbr
56-18 Hens Bankstown b Newtown
30-18 Wind Windsor b Auckland
W D L B Diff PT
CENTRAL COAST 2 - - - +30 4
NORTH SYDNEY 1 - - 1 +28 4
WESTS 2 - - - +12 4
WENTWORTHVILLE 1 - - 1 +2 4
BANKSTOWN CITY 1 - 1 - +36 2
SHELLHARBOUR 1 - 1 - +26 2
AUCKLAND 1 - 1 - +11 2
BALMAIN-RYDE 1 - 1 - -5 2
Cronulla - - 2 - -34 -
Windsor - - 2 - -36 -
Newtown - - 2 - -70 -
NSWRL U18 SG Ball Rd6
v Canberra, Ersk
WIN 40-10
T.Craig 2, S.Dowie, T.Lafai, A.Takapu, J.Tozer, T.Tuiletufuga tries
S.Dowie 6 goals
Other U18 Matches
62-18 Wyon Illawarra b Central Coast
40-22 Hens Newtown b Gold Coast
40-40 Birm Newcastle d Canterbury
30-4 Penr Penrith b Manly
30-28 Cabr Parramatta b Cronulla
28-26 Birc Balmain b Wests
30-16 Cabr Melbourne b W Syd Academy
28-22 TJMi St George b Norths
W D L Diff PT
PARRAMATTA 6 - - +166 12
ST GEORGE 6 - - +128 12
CANTERBURY 4 1 1 +164 9
PENRITH 4 - 2 +52 8
NEWTOWN 4 - 2 +24 8
MELBOURNE 4 - 2 -18 8
ILLAWARRA 3 1 2 +22 7
GOLD COAST 3 - 3 +26 6
Cronulla 3 - 3 +8 6
Balmain 3 - 3 -18 6
Manly 3 - 3 -34 6
Newcastle 2 1 3 +46 5
Norths 2 1 3 -60 5
Souths 2 - 4 -44 4
W Syd Academy 1 - 5 -88 2
Canberra 1 - 5 -142 2
Central Coast 1 - 5 -144 2
Wests - - 6 -98 -
NSWRL U16 Matthews Rd6
v Canberra, Ersk
DRAW 16-16
J.Roberts, K.Dungay, L.Tupu tries
D.Walker, J.Roberts goals
Other U16 Matches
18-6 Wyon Central C b Illawarra
14-14 Hens Easts d Gold Coast
26-20 Birm Canterbury b Newcastle
30-14 Penr Penrith b Manly
30-4 Cabr Parramatta b Cronulla
40-14 Birc Wests b Balmain
28-8 Cabr W Syd Acad b SW Syd Academy
26-10 TJMi St George b Norths
W D L Diff PT
CANTERBURY 6 - - +156 12
PARRAMATTA 4 2 - +80 10
MANLY 5 - 1 +52 10
GOLD COAST 4 1 1 +102 9
PENRITH 4 - 2 +56 8
WESTS 4 - 2 +46 8
CRONULLA 4 - 2 +20 8
EASTS 3 1 2 -16 7
Newcastle 3 - 3 +62 6
Balmain 3 - 3 -12 6
St George 2 1 3 +6 5
Central Coast 2 1 3 -18 5
Souths 1 2 3 +40 4
W Syd Academy 2 - 4 -34 4
Canberra 1 1 4 -18 3
Illawarra 1 1 4 -48 3
Norths 1 - 5 -142 2
SW Syd Academy - - 5 -220 -