Dragons prevail over tough Bunnies
Brad Walter April 18, 2011
South Sydney 0 St George Illawarra 16
Jon Green of the Dragons is brought down.
Photo: Getty Images
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA players believe Wayne Bennett's decision to snub the Rabbitohs for Newcastle next season fired up their South Sydney opponents in last night's epic encounter at ANZ Stadium.
MATCH STATS
Despite Souths suffering their fourth defeat of the season, departing Rabbitohs coach John Lang declared his side's defensive effort as their best in his two-year reign at the club after they held the Dragons to a 2-0 lead until the 67th minute.
Bennett also praised the defence of the premiers, which was highlighted by a remarkable 55th minute effort from former Test centre Matt Cooper when he drove Souths forward Chris McQueen back into the field of play as he reached out to plant the ball over the tryline.
Rabbitoh Greg Inglis confronts the Dragons defence.
Photo: Getty Images
Teammates credited Cooper's trysaving tackle as being the pivotal moment in a game that until 13 minutes before full-time destined to be the lowest-scoring match since Newtown and Canterbury played a nil-all draw in 1982, but also blamed Bennett's decision last week for giving the Rabbitohs extra motivation.
''I have no doubt,'' Dragons five-eighth Jamie Soward said. ''You saw before the decision that they wanted Wayne pretty bad, and he made the decision to go to Newcastle.''
Bennett deflected questions about his decision at the post-match press conference, and said nothing had changed for him and his players this season.
The Rabbitohs Fetuli Talanoa offloads.
Photo: Getty Images
''I have been fine all the way through it, and the players have realised that,'' he said. ''We have just got on with what we have to do at the Dragons, and that is our priority.''
The Dragons appeared to play a more expansive game than they are renowned for, while the Rabbitohs' defence was a vast improvement on their opening five matches in which they had leaked 146 points - the worst defensive record in the NRL.
''Our defence was definitely the best it has been this season and probably most of our games, if not all of them, last year,'' Lang said. ''We just dropped off that last 10 minutes but there was a lot of very good defence.''
As a result of the tight contest, opposing centres Greg Inglis and Mark Gasnier did not get many opportunites to shine but Bennett labelled Gasnier's performance as his best since he returned from rugby union midway through last season, and Cooper said the NSW selectors should pick him for Origin.
''He has been playing terrific, and this year he is back to his old ways,'' Cooper said. ''The last two weeks in particular his attack looks sharper and he looks quicker so I would put him straight into the side.''
Gasnier, who crossed in the 71st minute after picking up a loose pass from Ben Creagh, played down his rivalry with Inglis. ''I don't think you can focus too much on individual match-ups,'' he said. ''It was defence that got us through tonight and it is probably what has got us through so far.''
Darius Boyd scored the only other try in the 67th minute.
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 16 (D Boyd M Gasnier tries J Soward 4 goals) bt
SOUTH SYDNEY 0 at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Jared Maxwell, Alan Shortall. Crowd: 22,771.
墨尔本 - 菜鸟第二次人像外拍 Urban Graffiti (2009-6-29) samxsam 
楼主:dootbear
发表于 2011-4-15 23:02
发表于 2011-4-16 06:07
，不过反正赢了足迹tipping也没奖励，我就来垫你们的底吧，让其他同学开心开心，哈哈。。
