South Sydney Rabbitohs were crowned NRL Grand Final winners for the first time since 1971 after recording a 30-6 win over the Canterbury Bulldogs at the ANZ Stadium on Sunday.
All the talk ahead of this Grand Final was the battle between Englishmen Sam Burgess and James Graham and the first hit up of the day saw Burgess and Graham clash heads with the Bunnies forward suffering a suspected fractured cheekbone.
Remember this is rugby league and there was no way Burgess was going to leave the field and he continued to run the ball in with all of his mite.
The Bunnies thought they had opened the scoring in the sixth minute when the ball came loose from Sam Perrett and Lote Tuqiri crossed over,but the video referee ruled the ball came out following a high tackle from Adam Reynolds.
It was a real forwards battle in the first half with defences well on top and the opening score came in the 21st minute when winger Alex Johnston collected a ball from Kirisome Auva’a to score in the corner for his 21st try of the season in only his 18th game. Adam Reynolds was off target with his conversion attempt as the Bunnies led 4-0.
The Bunnies extended their lead to 6-0 with Adam Reynolds slotting over a penalty after interference in the tackle and this came on the back of a great jinking run from the marvellous Greg Inglis.
A 40-20 from Doggies number six Josh Reynolds put Canterbury in a great position but they could not take advantage as Josh Morris failed to collect an excellent offload from Tony Williams and all he had to do was catch it and he would have scored.
Alex Johnston (R) (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
You have to say Souths created the most chances in the opening 40 minutes and deserved their 6-0 half-time advantage, but the Doggies were still fighting and not out of it yet.
The next score in this Grand Final would be crucial and it was the Doggies who did as big T-Rex, Tony Williams, collected a grubber kick to score. Trent Hodkinson levelled it up at 6-6 with the conversion.
But that score got the Bunnies riled up and big George Burgess took some of pressure of brother Sam by bursting up the middle to score what proved to be the crucial score. Adam Reynolds added the extras and after missing a penalty attempt he managed to make amends with a successful one as they moved into a 14-6 lead with 15 minutes remaining.
George Burgess (Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Bulldogs captain Graham put in a monster hit on Dave Tyrrell which saw the Bunnies prop carried from the field. The Souths fans were screaming for Graham to be sent off but it was fair hit and the damage was done by an acidental clash of heads.
It was all Canterbury now but they could not find that second try to get back in the contest and the Bunnies put the cherry on top of the cake with Auva’a grabbing their third try thanks to a superb kick from Inglis to win the title for the first time in 43 years.
Adam Reynolds converted and the scrum-half made absolutely sure with another try and conversion. The Doggies were dead on their feet and the Bunnies took full advantage with Inglis racing away to score. Sam Burgess then took the final conversion of the game in his last game for the club bu he was off target but it didn’t matter as they won 30-6.
