South Sydney beat Manly 34-26 to set up a Qualifying Final against Canberra Raiders.
The first half was an entertaining affair with Souths opening up a ten-point lead early on through tries from Alex Johnston and Cody Walker but Manly replied with two scores of their own to pull the deficit back to only two. Brad Parker and Corey Waddell both scoring on the left.
With Walker in the bin for the Rabbitohs for a palm to the face of Jack Gosiewski, Manly took the lead for the first through Daly Cherry-Evans but when back up to 13 players, Souths earned the half-time lead when Cameron Murray crashed over through the play-the-ball.
The entertainment continued in the second half, Moses Suli gave the visitors the lead once again but Reynolds’ penalty levelled the scores.
Parker was sin binned for the Sea Eagles for a professional foul but that spurred them on to take the lead once again through Gosiewski.
It would only be when the visitors were reduced to 12 men again that they lost their lead. Jake Trbojevic was sin binned for another professional foul and Souths levelled the scores thourgh a try from John Sutton.
Three minutes later, the hosts took the lead when Murray latched on to a loose ball. And when Cherry-Evans failed to drop out in time, Reynolds kicked another penalty to seal the home side’s win.
Rabbitohs: Doueihi, Johnston, Roberts, Gagai, Graham, Walker, Reynolds, T Burgess, Cook, Knight, Sutton, S Burgess, Murray; Interchanges: G Burgess, Nicholls, Tatola, Lowe
Tries: Johnston, Walker, Murray 2, Sutton; Goals: Reynolds 7
Sin bin: Walker (29) – fighting
Sea Eagles: Elliot, Taufua, Parker, Suli, Garrick, Walker, Cherry-Evans, Fonua-Blake, Koroisau, Taupau, Waddell, Gosiewski, J Trbojevic; Interchanges: Fainu, Olakau’atu, Keppie, Perrett
Tries: Parker, Waddell, Cherry-Evans, Suli, Gosiewski; Goals: Garrick 3
Sin bin: Parker (54) – professional foul, Trbojevic (67) – professional foul
On report: Cherry-Evans (21) – dangerous contact, Parker (54) – trip
Full match reports of both of this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
