The Hollywood story of the season came to a heart-warming conclusion as Russell Crowe’s South Sydney Rabbitohs ended their 43-year premiership drought with an emotion charged NRL grand final victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday night.
The Rabbitohs seized the day on their first grand final appearance since 1971, to fulfil their fairy tale destiny in front of an 83,833-strong ANZ Stadium crowd.
Souths dominated the opening half but had only six points to their name at the break thanks to an Alex Johnston four-pointer and Adam Reynolds penalty goal. Canterbury hit back in the second-half with a Tony Williams try but the comeback was short-lived, as a converted try to George Burgess and a second penalty restored the Rabbitohs lead before they stormed home with late scores to Kirisome Auva’a, Reynolds and Greg Inglis.
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After temperatures climbed towards 34 degrees throughout the afternoon to make it the hottest grand final day in history, play sizzled from the kick-off, with Rabbitohs enforcer and Clive Churchill medal winner Sam Burgess fracturing his cheekbone on the first run of the night after clashing heads with fellow Englishman and Bulldogs co-captain James Graham.
Terrific cover defence and the video referee denied the Rabbitohs early tries but Johnston eventually opened the scoring after 20 minutes when Luke Keary, alternating between five-eighth and hooker to compensate for the loss of suspended rake Issac Luke, ducked down a short side to create a three on two overlap. Reynolds missed the attempted goal but redeemed himself with a penalty goal three minutes later.
Souths’ pack were winning the forward battle to leave Canterbury struggling for territory while Reynolds was relentless in pressuring
Canterbury’s back three of Sam Perrett, Corey Thompson and Josh Morris, with kicks along the ground and in the air, yet the six-point margin remained at the break.
A Canterbury mistake off the kick-off gave Souths the perfect start to the second-half but the Bulldogs remained in the fight and sniffed an opening when centre Dylan Walker lost possession.
Canterbury worked it into position before Josh Reynolds threaded a grubber through for Williams to collect and score, with halfback Trent Hodkinson’s conversion levelling things up.
The momentum looked to be shifting but the Rabbitohs powered back in front when Burgess busted through four defenders to score under the bar, with Reynolds’ goal restoring their six point lead.
A shoulder charge from Graham saw Adam Reynolds awarded a shot at goal which skewed wide but he nailed his next shot moments later, after Aidan Tolman was penalised for holding on.
Canterbury’s hopes were extinguished when Auva’a touched down off an Inglis kick, before Reynolds and Inglis capped the scoring to spark jubilant scenes of celebrations.
SOUTH SYDNEY - 30 (K Auva’a G Burgess G Inglis A Johnston A Reynolds tries A Reynolds 5 goals).
CANTERBURY - 6 (T Williams try T Hodkinson goal).
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