Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
Fri Sep 7, 7:50pm
Selected Preliminary Semi-Final Teams
CyberView from the Hill - Last Week
CyberView from the Hill - This Week
Late Changes
Fuimaono and McIlwrick were trimmed 24h before the match. Burns and Tatola were 18th and 19th men.
LOSS 28-29
Rabbitohs go down in tough one-point loss in Melbourne. It was five tries apiece, but in the wash-up they will now have to back up next weekend and play the winner of Sunday's elimination final between the Broncos and Dragons at Suncorp Stadium. The closeness of these well-coached sides on Friday night came via the scoreboard – it was 6-6, 18-18 and 22-22 and 28-28 but the lead still changed five times during the match. It was finals football at its physical best. Souths opennd the scoing in the 8th minute after a well placed kick from Reynoldswas knocked back by Graham for Gagai to score. Reynolds missed the conversion from out wide 4-0. A few minutes later Reynolds added a penalty goal. Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu had a running argument all night with Cody Walker but buried his shoulder into Greg Inglis' left rib cage in the 22nd minute, which left the Rabbitohs skipper curled up on the ground in pain. A 22nd minute try to Melbourne leveled the score 6 all. Souths pulled away after a long range penalty goal in the 28th minute. Souths halfback Adam Reynolds received a penalty for being tackled in the air by Josh Addo-Carr. Kaufusi then put on his second big hit on Sam Burgess, dislodging the ball from his grasp both times. Melbourne then took the lead in the 31st minute when Billy Slater sent a netball-like pass to Vunivalu to score his side's second try for a 10-8 lead. During the next set Reynolds was flattened again by second rower Felise Kaufusi. Poking their heads out in front didn't last long, Addo-Carr illegally tackled Reynolds in the air causing a shoulder injury to the playmaker. Almost immediately Souths winger Robert Jennings managed to off-load close to the ground for Greg Inglis. With Gagai missing the conversion while reynolds was being treated for a shoulder injury. 36th minute and Souths were backinthe lead 12-10. With 40 seconds left on the clock before the break, Christian Welch also collected Reynolds. He signalled to the bench as he gripped his left right shoulder. Few expected the plucky No.7 to return for the second half. But the Storm weren't done yet. Halfback Brodie Croft scutted past a tired tackle attempt by Sam Burgess and when he drew Alex Johnston he kicked ahead for Vunivalu to score his second – with a spectacular swan dive – in the shadow of the halftime siren. It was a tit-for-tat opening 40 minutes with five tries in total before the home side took a 16-12 lead into the sheds. All three of Storm's tries – the brace to Vunivalu and one to centre Curtis Scott – came at the expense of South Sydney's left edge defence. Second resumed and kick through in goal saw a dubious penalty given against George Burgess which resulted in Burgess being sent to the sin bin in the 44th minutes. The Rabbitohs survived being down to 12 men, to level scores 18-18 through Inglis's second try. He collected a Reynolds bomb, beating two defenders, and then ran right over the top of his former Queensland and Australian teammate Slater. Then Melbourne centre Curtis Scott was penalised for dragging Cody Walker into touch. The next set for the Rabbitohs and Robert Jennings went over in the left corner and Souths were back in the lead 22-18 in the 62nd minute. Storm replied four minutes later through centre Cheyse Blair at we were back at 22 all. Melbourne then knocked in tryig to collect and lose ball and a shot ball from Walker to Murray saw him break the line and score to the right of the posts. 71st minute and it was startingto look like Souths would record their first win in Melbourne. But a long range try by Melbourne saw Blair's collect his second try within eight minutes and we were locked at 28 all. A long range wonky left foot field goal from Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster four minutes from the full-time siren sent Melbourne through to the NRL preliminary finals while prolonging South Sydney's pain at AAMI Park.
8 min 4-0
12 min 6-0
22 min 6-6
26 min 8-6
31 min 8-10
36 min 12-10
39 min 12-16
43 min 12-18
55 min 18-18
61 min 22-18
65 min 22-22
71 min 28-22
74 min 28-28
76 min 28-29
Inglis 2, Gagai, Jennings, Murray tries
Reynolds 4 from 6, Gagai 0 from 1 goals
Crowd 17,306
Referee A.Klein/A.Gee
Penalities 5-6
Scrums 3-3
44 min George, Burgess 10SB Professional Foul
Final Line Up
Min Tac Pe MT LB Rn DR m Er OL K TA T G/A FG
Flbk - 1 - Johnston, Alex 80 3 - - - 11 - 77 - - - - - - -
LWng - 5 - Jennings, Robert 80 2 1 - 1 18 - 168 1 1 1 1 1 - -
LCtr - 3 - Inglis, Greg 80 5 - - 1 16 3 134 - - - 1 2 - - (c)
RCtr - 4 - Gagai, Dane 80 25 1 5 - 7 - 45 - - - - 1 -/1 -
RWng - 2 - Graham, Campbell 80 5 - 3 - 12 - 106 1 - - - - - -
5/8 - 6 - Walker, Cody 80 15 - 2 1 12 1 112 - 1 1 1 - - -
Half - 7 - Reynolds, Adam 80 18 - 4 - 4 - 24 - - 18 2 - 4/6 -
Prop - 8 - Burgess, Tom 44 20 - 1 - 10 - 96 - - - - - - -
Hook - 9 - Cook, Damien 80 35 - 3 - 8 7 66 - - - - - - -
Prop - 10 - Burgess, George 43 26 3 2 - 9 - 92 - - - - - - -
SRow - 11 - Sutton, John 80 22 - 4 - 16 - 154 1 1 - - - - -
SRow - 12 - Crichton, Angus 65 36 - 6 - 9 - 69 - - - - - - -
Lock - 13 - Burgess, Sam 80 38 - 6 - 19 - 176 4 - - - - - -
Int - 15 - Murray, Cameron 58 31 1 - 1 13 - 136 - 2 - - 1 - -
Int - 16 - Clark, Jason 20 7 - - - 7 - 59 - - - - - - -
Int - 14 - Hunt, Hymel - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Int - 17 - Britt, Dean - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
288 6 36 4 1520 7 5 20 - 5 4/7 -
Completion Rate - 30 / 37 81%
Opposition Offloads - 6
Effective 1st Tackles
0 min 10m KO
1 min 63m SS Err(Graham) SCR / (M NO TRY)
3 min 17m Reynolds kick COF
5 min 46m Reynolds kick
8 min 0m Reynolds kick TRY
10 min 31m Walker kick COF
12 min 0m P GOAL
14 min 8m Reynolds kick COF
16 min 20m M Err SCR / SS Err(SBurgess) SCR
18 min 20m Reynolds kick COF
19 min 58m SS Err(SBurgess) SCR
21 min 74m SS Err(Jennings) 47m SS P(Jennings) / (M TRY)
24 min 11m KO
26 min 0m P GOAL
27 min 80m SS Err(SBurgess)
29 min 45m Reynolds kick COF 8m / SS P(Murray) / (M TRY)
32 min 10m KO
36 min 0m M-6TG / reynolds kick P / TRY
39 min 10m Reynolds kick COF
half time
40 min 27m Reynolds kick COF
42 min 100m Reynolds kick COF 27m / SS P(GBurgess) 64m / SS P-10SB(GBurgess) (M GOAL)
46 min 18m KO
48 min 38m Reynolds kick
51 min 0m M Err / P / Reynolds kick Jennings kick CIG
52 min 0m M-6TG SCR / Reynolds kick CIG
55 min 0m Reynolds kick TRY
57 min 20m Reynolds kick COF
59 min 5m Reynolds kick COF
61 min 0m P / TRY
64 min 83m Reynolds kick COF 30m / SS P(Gagai) / (M TRY)
68 min 13m KO
69 min 13m Reynolds kick COF
71 min 0m M Err SCR / TRY
73 min 21m Reynolds kick COF / (M TRY)
75 min 9m KO/ (M FIELDGOAL)
77 min 40m Sh-KO
78 min 69m SS Err(SBurgess)
79 min 66m SS Err(Sutton)
Average effective 1st tackle location
- 28.3m - for the whole match
- 28.4m - 1st half
- 28.2m - 2nd half
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27-12 StAu (5v8) Penrith b Warriors
48-18 Lang (7v6) St Geo-Ill b Brisbane
Judiciary News
No one has been charged out of the match.
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