North Queensland Stadium
Sat Sep 11, 7:50pm
Selected Preliminary Semi-Final Team
CyberView from the Hill - Last Week
CyberView from the Hill - This Week
Late Changes
Cartwright, Burns and Ilias were trimmed 24 hours before the game, while Milne #22 was added to the bench. Milne was trimmed on game day.
WIN 16-10
Finals are being played in Queensland due to the Greater Sydney Delta Variant covid outbreak.
Fill-in fullback Blake Taaffe had the final say to set up a decisive try and help the Rabbitohs advance to their fourth consecutive preliminary final with a 16-10 upset win over Penrith in Townsville on Saturday night. Defensively it was among the Bunnies' best efforts of the season and a remarkable turnaround from when the side were thumped by the Panthers 56-10 in round 11 and beaten 25-12 last month. After a war of words leading into the game between coach's Cleary and Bennett it was Reynolds who openned the scoring in the 3rd minute with a penalty goal in front of the posts. But attempting his first catch of a Cleary bomb, yound Taaffe dropped the bomb. In the following set of six a beautiful curving in-goal kick resulted in Penrith getting the first try of the game and a early lead 6 to 2. Cody Walker showed his class on the left edge to link with Dane Gagai for the Rabbitohs' first try of the evening with the Rabbitohs bouncing back to 8 to 6 lead. Both sides traded further penalty goals for a 10-all scoreline at the break. After the break it was the right side that stunned the Panthers in defence. In his second match replacing Latrell Mitchell at fullback and just his sixth career game, Taaffe broke a 10-10 deadlock with a try assist for Jaxson Paulo just after half-time. The Rabbitohs held a four-point advantage for another 20 minutes before a Reynolds penalty goal extended the lead to six and allowed Bennett's side to grind their way to victory. Rabbitohs did what they couldn't three weeks ago and control the second half. After a week of debate about how he would handle the high ball, the 22-year-old brushed aside an early error to return the faith shown by coach Wayne Bennett in recent weeks. The final 20 minutes was a strong defensive effort, stopping wave after wave of attack as the Rabbitohs booked their place in the Preliminary Final and truning the premiership race on its head. Departing skipper Adam Reynolds put the boot into the Panthers with 602 kicking metres while Thomas Burgess led from the front with 212 metres from 21 hit-ups. Bennet was full of praise for the team and young Taaffe. "I think he did a tremendous job," Bennett said post-match. "I think we handled [the pressure with] him well but more importantly he handled himself well. We wouldn't have put him out there if we didn't believe in him. Not in a game like this." Reynolds was full of praise for Taaffe, who combined with wingers Paulo and Alex Johnston to defuse several dangerous situations. "Latrell is such a massive part of our team but this kid [Taaffe] is pretty special, He never gives up and always tries hard. He dropped an early one but never dropped his head. It's a credit to him as a young man. It's something I've been talking to him about all week. We asked him to be mistake-free. If you drop one you've got to keep your confidence up and keep playing footy."
3 min 2-0 Reynolds goal
8 min 2-6
25 min 8-6 Walker try Reynolds goal
28 min 8-8
34 min 10-8 Reynolds goal
40 min 10-10
HT 10-10
43 min 14-10 Paulo try Reynolds miss
64 min 16-10 Reynolds goal
Walker, Paulo tries
Reynolds 4 from 5 goals
Weather Fine
Ground Soft
Crowd 18,244 (Played with 75% capacity due to the Brisbane Covid outbreak)
Referee Gerard Sutton
Touch Judges Dave Munro / Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski
Video Alan Shortall
Scrums 5-2 (1H 2-1 )
Penalities 7-5 (1H 3-3 )
6 Again 3-2 (1H 3-1 )
Final Line Up -
Min Tac Pe 6A MT LA LB Rn DR m Er OL K TA T G/A FG 2FG
Flbk - 1 - Taaffe, Blake 80 3 - - - 2 - 18 - 113 1 - 1 1 - - - -
LWng - 2 - Johnston, Alex 80 2 - - 1 - 1 10 2 94 1 - 2 - - - - -
LCnt - 3 - Gagai, Dane 80 13 - - 4 - 1 10 2 69 - - - 1 - - - -
RCnt - 4 - Graham, Campbell 80 25 - - 2 - - 16 - 115 - 1 - - - - - -
RWng - 5 - Paulo, Jaxson 80 4 - - - - 1 12 - 98 2 1 - - 1 - - -
5/8 - 6 - Walker, Cody 80 19 1 - - 1 1 14 - 85 1 - 3 - 1 - - -
Half - 7 - Reynolds, Adam 80 14 - - 2 1 - 16 - 96 - 1 17 - - 4/5 - - (c)
Prop - 8 - Nicholls, Mark 36 22 - - 2 - - 16 - 106 - - - - - - - - [0-20,64-80]
Hook - 9 - Cook, Damien 80 40 - - 1 - - 5 4 26 - 3 - - - - - -
Prop - 10 - Tatola, Junior 35 21 - - 1 - - 17 - 144 1 1 - - - - - - [0-20,60-64,69-80]
SRow - 11 - Koloamatangi, Keaon 69 41 2 - - - - 11 - 97 - - - - - - - - [0-60,71-80]
SRow - 12 - Su'A, Jaydn 54 24 - - 2 - - 9 - 62 1 1 - - - - - - [0-29,51-60,64-80]
Lock - 13 - Murray, Cameron 61 33 1 1 2 - - 18 - 121 - 1 - - - - - - [0-32,51-80]
Int - 14 - Marshall, Benji 19 8 - 1 - - - 5 - 38 1 - - - - - - - [32-51]
Int - 15 - Host, Jacob 42 11 - - 1 - - 7 - 66 1 - - - - - - - [29-71]
Int - 16 - Burgess, Tom 40 16 - - - - - 21 - 212 - - - - - - - - [20-51,60-69]
Int - 17 - Arrow, Jai 40 26 1 - 3 - - 12 - 89 - - - - - - - - [20-60]
Conc - 21 - Mago, Patrick (DNP)
322 5 2 21 4 4 1638 9 9 23 2 2 4/5 - -
Completion Rate - 37/44 84%
Opposition Offloads - 8
Effective 1st Tackles
1 min 11m KO
3 min 0m Pe-6A / P GOAL
5 min 6m Pe-6A / ChOv
7 min 79m SS Err(Taaffe) SCR / (Pe TRY)
10 min 31m KO 10m / SS-6A(Murray)
12 min 25m Reynolds kick
13 min 44m Reynolds kick COF
15 min 13m Pe Err / Reynolds kick COF
16 min 13m Reynolds kick
18 min 34m Pe Err SCR Pe-6A / SS Err(Tatola) 10m SS P(DCook)
21 min 5m P / Walker kick
22 min 29m Reynolds kick COF
24 min 0m Pe-6TG / TRY
27 min 100m SS Err(SuA) 60m / SS P(Koloamatangi) (Pe GOAL)
30 min 70m DO
32 min 0m Pe Err SCR / Johnton kick CIG
34 min 0m P GOAL
35 min 17m Reynolds kick COF
37 min 57m SS Err(Koloamatangi)
39 min 100m Johnston kick COF 25m / SS P(Arrow) (Pe GOAL)
half time
41 min 20m Walker kick
43 min 0m P / TRY
46 min 15m Reynolds kick COF
48 min 94m SS Err(Johnston) SCR 92m SS-6A(Marshall)
50 min 23m Pe Err SCR / Reynolds kick COF
52 min 86m Reynolds kick COF 18m / SS P(Koloamatangi)
55 min 95m Sh-DO SS Err(Paulo) 80m Pe Err Pe-CC / SS-6TG(Paulo)
58 min 30m Pe Err / Reynolds kick 30m / Pe-CC(x)
64 min 0m P / Reynolds kick ChDn / P GOAL
65 min 25m Reynolds kick
67 min 35m Pe Err SCR / Taaffe kick DIG
69 min 0m P / Reynolds kick CIG
71 min 20m SS Err(Walker)
72 min 24m Johnston kick COF
73 min 36m Pe Err / Reynolds kick COF
75 min 44m Reynolds kick 20m SS P(Walker)
78 min 17m Pe Err SCR / Reynolds kick COF
Pe Err SCR /
Average effective 1st tackle location
- 32.4m - for the whole match
- 31.7m - 1st half
- 33.2m - 2nd half
Other First Grade Matches
40-12 SunS (1v4) Melbourne b Manly
25-24 NQSt (5v8) Syd Rstrs b Gold Coast
28-20 Rock (6v7) Parramatta b Newcastle
Judiciary News
No one has been charged out of the match.
BYE
Other First Grade Matches
BYE (1) Melbourne
8-6 Mcky (3v6) Penrith b Parramatta
42-6 Mcky (4v5) Manly b Syd Rstrs
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