Superstars Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell dug deep into their bag of tricks as the Rabbitohs outclassed the Storm 28-12 at Suncorp Stadium in Magic Round on Saturday night.
The mercurial duo both laid on tries with grubber kicks as the Rabbitohs avenged a Round 5 loss to Melbourne and climbed to second on the ladder in the process.
After Rabbitohs winger Alex Johnston was dragged down just short of the line in the sixth minute, Mitchell jumped into dummy half and laid on a try for Walker with a brilliant grubber kick. The star fullback converted for a 6-0 lead.
Walker turned provider in the 19th minute when he went to the line and put edge forward Jacob or Jacob Host into a hole for the Rabbitohs' second try.
A high tackle penalty against Cameron Murray invited the Storm into the danger zone late in the half and Cameron Munster earned his team a repeat set with a deft grubber kick but the Rabbitohs' defence held firm.
Come the 36th minute and the Storm found the tryline when Walker spilled a bomb in front of his own posts and Reimis Smith pounced on the loose ball to score.
A dropped ball by Jai Arrow in the opening set of the second half gave the Storm an early sniff but Taane Milne defused a Munster bomb to ease the pressure.
Seven minutes into the second half the Rabbitohs rebounded when Mitchell went to the boot a gain to lay on a try for Johnston to make it 16-6.
Playing in his 200th game, Johnston had a rapid fire double in the 52nd minute when slick hands from Walker and Isaiah Tass gave him a saloon passage to the corner. Mitchell's conversion made it 22-6.
With 13 minutes to play the Rabbitohs put the result beyond doubt when Walker's left footed grubber found Tass and the centre had the seventh try of his career as Jason Demetriou's men secured a seventh win of the season.
The Storm continued to throw everything they had at the Rabbitohs and with four minutes to play Bronson Garlick got over from dummy half for his first NRL try.
A cross field kick by Munster gave the Storm a shot at a third try but Johnston capped a memorable night when he leapt high to bring the ball down and shut the play down.
Match snapshot
- Thomas Burgess played his 219th game for the Rabbitohs to leapfrog Nathan Merritt (218) into third on the list of Souths' most capped players behind John Sutton (336) and Adam Reynolds (231).
- The Storm had 54 per cent of the ball and completed 19 off 22 sets in the first half but could not crack Souths' line until the 36th minute.
- Storm centre Reimis Smith's first-half try was his first since Round 1 last season.
- Liam Knight entered the game in the 34th minute for his first NRL game time since Round 11 last year. He had 11 runs for 67 metres in 27 minutes of game time.
- A crowd of 50,183 packed into Suncorp Stadium for the second night of Magic Round.
- The Storm have lost four of their past five games at Suncorp Stadium.
- Storm forward Tom Eisenhuth left the field for a HIA in the 49th minute which he passed.
- Thomas Burgess was huge off the bench for Souths with 139 metres from 14 runs.
- Trent Loiero put in a strong 73-minute performance for the Storm with 13 runs for 126 metres, including 31 post-contact metres.
- Rabbitohs skipper Cameron Murray suffered a head cut late in the match and was sent for a HIA.
- Rabbitohs fullback Latrell Mitchell has scored 78 points in his past five games.
- Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell had four try assists between them for the Rabbitohs.
Plays of the Game
On the same ground where he produced a spectacular solo try in the 2021 grand final, Cody Walker grabbed another spectacular try courtesy of a Latrell Mitchell grubber early in the game. The mercurial fullback jumped into dummy half and put in a perfectly placed kick for his No.6 to follow through and score the game's opening four-pointer.
Mitchell was at it again in the 47th minute when he went to the left hand side and again came up with a try assist via the boot, grubbering into the in goal for Alex Johnston to score his 170th career try. Two magic Mitchell moments in Magic Round had helped the Rabbitohs open up a decent lead.
What They Said
"It's a great start but that's all it is. There's a long, long way to go in the season. The boys have really trusted in it and believed in it, the defensive process we've been implementing for two years. Not having a lot of changes in a squad really helps and if we keep having a defensive mindset we're a tough team to beat. Through our process we are staying strong and if we keep doing that we will be tough to beat. Our key players are playing well at the moment and that's what you want. Latrell and Cody bring that instinctive footy to the table." - Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou
"The first half we had a lot of good field position but it looked like we were 13 guys who didn't know each other and there was no rhythm at all. The communication must have been right off. We don't seem to be learning from where we are going wrong and we're not doing the things we need to do for longer periods in the game and we ran into a really good side tonight. We need to work out why things happened tonight like they did and hopefully we can improve on a few things. There were some good parts as well - we just need to take more of the bad parts out and put more of the good parts in." - Storm coach Craig Bellamy
What's Next
The Storm are at home in Melbourne in Round 11 for a Thursday night clash against Brisbane.
The Rabbitohs get two extra days to recover before they face Wests Tigers at Accor Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Story first published on NRL.com