NRL: Warriors thumped by Bunnies

Specialist Multimedia Sports Journalist·Herald on Sunday·

6 Jun, 2015 09:32 AM3 mins to read

The Rabbitohs celebrate a try during their big win over the Warriors. Photo / Getty

Rabbitohs 36
Warriors 4

Crash. Bang. Wallop. It's a despairing scoreline but it's not quite time to despair.

This Warriors team is not as bad as 36-4 might seem, nor perhaps as good as their recent winning streak had indicated. There are somewhere in between and struck a Rabbitohs teams in irrestible form, perhaps the best they have played since the finals series last year.

The Sydney team scored six tries - and could have had a few more - as Greg Inglis, Dylan Walker and Alex Johnston ran riot and the Souths pack monstered their opposites. The Warriors were in the contest for the first half hour then fell away, as Souths quickly accelerated to a 22-4 halftime lead. There was no way back from there, as their miserable run in West Australia (six defeats from six games) continued.

The Warriors have showed promise this year, turned some corners and look a stronger unit than previous seasons. But some irrefutable truths remain. To compete with a top four side, the Auckland club need to a) play out of their skins and b) have most things go their way. Instead, we got c) anything they could go wrong, did.

The visitors lost Sam Tomkins before kick off, Simon Mannering for most of the first half and stand in centre Johnathan Wright for much of the second. And then almost all of the rest of the team chose the wrong day to have their worst individual performances of the season.

It added up to their biggest losing margin of 2015, and it could have been more emphatic, with Souths missing several other opportunities.

The match exposed the inexperienced Warriors pack, which was always going to happen at some stage while some of the first-up tackling was abysmal. The Rabbitohs' fifth try, to Alex Johnston, will go down as one of the worst conceded in Warriors' history but the match had turned in the three minutes before halftime, when Souths scored twice off Warriors' mistakes to extend a 10-4 lead to 22-4.

This clash was meant to be the litmus test. After three tight wins over lesser ranked teams, they faced the premiers. Russell's Rabbitohs. The new 'Green Machine', and much meaner than any of the Raiders editions. Souths have had an inconsistent start to 2015 but there isn't a tougher pack in the game, even without Sam Burgess. And that was the main difference, plain and simple as the Warriors couldn't stop the Rabbitohs' bulldozer.

Early on, there were good signs of intent; Manu Vatuvei put a big hit on Dylan Walker, before Ben Matulino came up with the closest thing to a legal shoulder charge on George Burgess backwards.The Warriors were matching the Souths pack, even denting the line at times, but it always felt like they were holding on desperately...and it soon became fingernails down the cliff stuff.

They weren't helped by a bizarre refereeing decision for the Rabbitohs first try, in allowing Bryson Goodwin to get up and play on after he was clearly tackled. That call, and some early penalties, gave the Rabbitohs momentum but from then on the Warriors were the masters of their own misfortune. They made a hatful of errors, couldn't complete their sets and most importantly let their defensive discipline go completely.

And to round off a forgettable day, a record crowd means Souths will almost certainly request the same fixture next year.