South Sydney Rabbitohs, without four Origin stars, completed a fifth win in a row with a 22-14 victory over Cronulla Sharks.
After both sides exchanged early penalty goals, the Bunnies took the lead.
Tom Burgess supported a John Sutton break and was able to reach out to plant the ball down.
Another South Sydney penalty, kicked by Adam Reynolds gave Souths an eight-point lead at half-time.
The Rabbitohs were playing well and put further daylight between them and Cronulla when Campbell Graham took a Reynolds kick expertly.
Reynolds missed his conversion but soon added a penalty to allow South Sydney to lead by three scores.
Souths were reduced to twelve for ten minutes when Sione Katoa broke and Robert Jennings slowed the play-the-ball down after helping Adam Doueihi tackle the winger.
Only moments later, Matt Moylan was binned for persistent offending allowing the Rabbitohs to create again. Doueihi broke from deep to set up the position for Tom Burgess to crash over for his second try.
Cronulla hit back with two late tries. First Jesse Ramien crashed over. Then Chad Townsend set up Sione Katoa but it was too late.
Rabbitohs: Doueihi, Graham, Burns, Hunt, Jennings, Walker, Reynolds, T Burgess, Farah, G Burgess, Sutton, S Burgess, Murray; Interchanges: Fuimaono, Nicholls, Clark, Tatola
Tries: T Burgess 2, Graham; Goals: Reynolds 5
Sin-bin: Jennings (67) – professional foul
Sharks: Lee, Feki, Ramien, Leutele, Katoa, Moylan, Townsend, Fifita, Brailey, Prior, Lewis, Graham, Gallen; Interchanges: Paulo, Segeyaro, Seumanufagai, Bukuya
Tries: Ramien, Katoa; Goals: Townsend 3
Sin-bin: Moylan (69) – repeated offences
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
