The Sharks had a bit to prove when they rocked up to host South Sydney on Saturday night for their first match of the 2023 season. Not only had they lost 38-12 to the Bunnies during the second week of 2022 finals footy, but the first week had handed them only their second home defeat of the year, against the Cowboys, after going down to the Roosters all the way back in Round 12. With a match beneath the wires to start the season, and the memory of that cardinal and myrtle drubbing still fresh in their mind, they had to make a big statement.

To make the setup even more dramatic, star halfback Nicho Hynes was out with a calf injury, forcing Braydon Trindall to rotate into the no. 7 jersey. Royce Hunt was also off with an elbow issue, meaning Bradon Hamlin-Uele was starting at prop, while Oregon Kaufusi was debuting off the bench in Cronulla colours. On the other side of the Steeden, Taane Milne was still working off his suspension for the high shot on Spencer Leniu in the preliminary finals loss to Penrith, despite sinking all but one of the six games on the sideline in Fiji’s World Cup stint.

The Rabbitohs stamped both stanzas with incredible defensive plays – the first an enormous trysaver on Ronaldo Mulitalo from Lachie Ilias, who scored the first South Sydney try on the following set for a twelve-point turnaround. After the sheds, the visitors made a couple of throwbacks to this game-changing vision and finally rivalled it with a very different kind of defensive display, in the form of an enormous pack effort on Toby Rudolf from Tom Burgess, Michael Chee Kam, Cam Murray and Shaq Mitchell, named off his mammoth Charity Shield.

Ilias’ opening save would turn out to be the mere prelude to his greatest performance to date. Not only did he come up with a second save but he played a role in all four of the South Sydney tries, which saw them unlocking their right edge with a new confidence and panache. Like Adam Reynolds against Penrith the night before, he was the critical ingredient here, and so twelve months after the Brisbane trade, it felt like were finally glimpsing a viable version of the post-Reynolds future – a Rabbitohs outfit building a new mythology around their halves.

Nevertheless, Trindall answered Ilias with one of his best performances in some time too, especially during the first quarter, when he bounced back from a spurious forward pass call that cost him a Sione Katoa assist, first with a brilliantly placed 40/20 and then with a trio of kicks, on the back of a pair of Will Kennedy boots, that saw him put down the most spectacular try of the night. It marked the start of an opening half in which several players, including Mulitalo and Keaon Koloamatangi, would recover and resurge from momentary frustrations.

Ilias set the stage for his dominant opening half by taking the kickoff behind the line and shifting it across for Tevita Tatola to take his first charge into Dale Finucane – and his only charge, since he was off the park a moment later after ducking too early, resulting in a nasty head clash that nevertheless left the big Cronulla frontrower intact. Twenty seconds into the game, Jai Arrow jumped off the bench, and got stuck in straight away, marching the footy out of the twenty, and drawing in four Sharkies to bring him to ground, a big statement of intent.

Murray took the next run and delivered a terrific offload right on the ground for Damien Cook to arrive at the brink of halfway, where Arrow put his hand up again to hit the forty, setting up Ilias to launch his first kick of the night. Kennedy had a fairly clutchy collect for his first high ball, especially once Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker scooped him up and dragged him beyond the ten, before Arrow and Chee Kam handed Jesse Ramien the same treatment, driving him about fifteen metres sideways before he was finally able to get down on the grass.

With Katoa unable to crack the twenty on the third, thanks to a big Murray-Moale combo, the Sharks needed their biggest man to step up – and Hamlin-Uele was more than willing to deliver, bringing down Arrow and clearing up space for Finucane to make a couple of tough post-contacts through Murray and so bring his team mates into the opposition thirty, where Trindall executed his first kick of the night. Even so, a deft short ball from Murray got Moale back into enemy territory, where Ilias completed his second set with a kick just over halfway.

Mulitalo was up to it, and pre-empted another sideways push by dashing across the park and shifting it on to Katoa, although the Bunnies were still pulsing with the pack efforts, almost driving the Cronulla backliner over the sideline. A tackle later, Briton Nikora straightened the play up the middle, and Rudolf followed in his wake, bending the line enough for Matty Moylan to poke his nose through, only to be confronted with a punishing Koloamatangi hit that prevented him getting the offload away. Once again, though, Trindall kicked at the thirty.

While Ramien batted it back, Chee Kam was there to collect it and at this point, five minutes in, the game started to stabilise into a set-for-set rhythm. Kennedy came up with another good take, Siosifa Talakai began to add his heft up the middle, and again Rudolf was the man to bring it over halfway. His rapid play-the-ball was a good platform for Blayke Brailey to set up Teig Wilton to break the forty on the left, before Moylan hoisted the highest kick so far to Izaac Thompson’s wing, where Latrell took it but couldn’t do much with Mulitalo around him.

Murray was raring for more position now, bringing the ball deep into the line before sweeping it out through Ilias and Koloamatangi for Campbell Graham, who shot it back inside for the kick, which ended with another deft Kennedy collect. From there, the Rabbitohs conceded their first penalty of the game, with big Keaon offside within the ten, providing a platform for Hamlin-Uele to charge it into the thirty, and Rudolf to barge it into the twenty, before Moylan swept it out through Trindall for Kennedy to dummy and put Mulitalo into space on the wing.

It was a silkily subliminal setup from the Cronulla fullback and by all accounts should have produced the first try of the night. Instead it became the venue for the first burst in one of Ilias’ best sequences to date, as the young halfback dove on Ronaldo, who was actually smiling in anticipation of the putdown, only to find the Steeden bumped from his grasp at the very death. As if that weren’t enough to galvanise South Sydney, they received their first penalty midway through the next count, with Moylan not square at marker, and scored straight off it.

Graham brought them to the twenty, where he offloaded for Cookie to bring them deep into the red zone, before Walker darted into dummy half and popped the ball back inside for Moale to take on the ten on tackle four. The last ingredient was a short one from Murray out to Ilias, who showed Mulitalo how to self-correct on the putdown. Receiving the Steeden at the ten, he eluded a Talakai ankle tap, swivelled past a low shot from Moylan, and managed to keep his elbow elevated, maintaining enough momentum to score in the face of Finucane.

Between the save on Mulitalo and the muscular dexterity of this putdown it was a dream start to the 2023 season for Ilias. Latrell was always going to slot through the kick from right in front as the sky turned amethyst beyond the power lines, and so the Bunnies had six on the board and all the momentum. Their restart was to be short lived, however, as Arrow broke away from his first contact, only to lose the footy and concede possession to Rudolf at the ten, ushering in the most convulsive changes in fortune, for both sides, during the first forty.

Talakai was five out by tackle two, Hamlin-Uele took an angled charge towards the crossbar, Rudolf brought it to the left padding and won six again, and the fresh set came to a crashing halt when Koloamatangi made up for his penalty by forcing the footy from Brailey’s grasp. The Rabbitohs had a scrum from their own ten, and while a four-man pack might have almost dragged Moale back to the try line on tackle one, they elasticised well enough by midway through the tackle count, when they received another marker penalty, this time from Nikora.

Arrow bounced back from his cough-up here by bringing the ball into the red zone midway through the count, while Chee Kam momentarily looked like he might reach through a Nikora tackle right on the line, before Jai continued his flow by almost brushing past Wilton beside the left post. All the convulsive turnovers now consolidated with an awkward Walker grubber that nevertheless got South Sydney six again, only for Murray to fumble the footy out on the right a beat later. Wilton scooped it up and the Sharkies had an extra tackle for the comeback.

Cometh the hour cometh the man, as Trindall took command, commencing one of the best sequences of his recent career with a perfectly weighted 40/20 to bring his men into the red zone. Rudolf bent the line all the way to the left post, Murray and Walker had to come in hard to clean up Moylan in the middle, and Trindall ended by arcing a beautiful harbour bridge ball out for Katoa to cross untouched on the wing – or at least that’s how it looked, since despite looking fine live and in slo-mo, it was called forward in the most contentious decision tonight.

The frustration here may have galvanized Trindall into his next great play, but for the moment he was content to wait and watch as the Bunnies packed the scrum from their ten, both sides sitting at seven tackles in the opposition twenty. Thompson and Keaon drove it up the right, where Cookie delivered from dummy half for Ilias to pop it out to Graham, who kept consummate balance as Wilton came in for a low shot, and then broke through the line, flicking it back to Thompson for what appeared destined to be a spectacular tryscoring run.

In a stunning riposte to Ilias’ try denial, however, Mulitalo came from eight metres back to grab Thompson by the shoulder and drag him to ground deep within the ten. Even then the South Sydney winger got the footy to grass but a few centimetres shy of the chalk – so close, in fact, that he almost seemed to have believed he’d nabbed the four points. Mulitalo might have bombed a try but he’d now forced a cough-up of his own, as both sides settled into another scrum from the Rabbitohs’ ten, but this time with Cronulla in control of the football.

The big boppers put in a methodical set to get Trindall forty-five metres out for the kick, and while there were no fireworks on the trajectory this time, Nikora made up for it with a piledriving charge into Latrell, who was tumbling over the grass before he could even think of a return. Again, Koloamatangi carved his way up the right edge, although this time his passage ended with an Ilias kick instead of a sweep – a kick that Kennedy collected clean, dancing over a Graham ankle tap to reach the twenty for the set that would apotheosise Trindall’s vision.

Katoa supercharged the set with a searching run midway through, before a skip and a jump from Oregon added more metres, and a Finucane short ball brought Wilton to the forty, where he offloaded out the back for Brailey. A magnificent team try now ensued, as the young hooker eluded a couple of tackles to hit the forty, where he copped Ilias around the waist, spun in the tackle, and made it third phase back for Finucane, who immediately sent it on to Trindall, as if intuiting that his halfback was the man to provide the consolidating play here. 

Trindall didn’t step back into the spotlight right away, shifting it out to Ramien to change the direction of play and make it fourth phase with yet another offload back to Kennedy, who loped back into the forty, considered for a moment how far to show it, and then put boot to ball, chasing it down and regaining possession just inside the twenty. There, he toed it again – or rather slid it along the ground, in a trajectory that defied both him and his opposing fullback, Latrell actually jumping over the Steeden, so disoriented was he by the angle of it.

Kennedy was unable to continue the momentum into the third kick, but that just paved the way for Trindall to execute a magnificent trio of boots himself, surging up behind to dribble it one, two, three times in goal, where he dove onto it for the most triumphant putdown of Round 1 so far, before adding the extras to level the score at 6-6 as the last vestiges of pink light faded from the sky behind Woolooware. The Sharkies were really rolling now, as Rudolf banged off Chee Kam and Burgess to pick up a couple of early metres, and Kaufusi hit halfway.

Trindall capped it off with the kick, a soaring bomb that Isaiah Tass cleaned up on a lucky bounce, as Jai Arrow left the park with eight runs and a hamstring injury and Shaq Mitchell joined the fray. The Sharks didn’t show any signs of slowing down, as Ramien racked up about eight post-contacts past Tass midway through the following set, and once again Trindall put boot to ball around the opposition forty. Latrell collected it and had his most room to move on the return all night, although even so a sharp Kennedy legs tackle kept him within the red.

Graham had pondered the right edge the set before and Koloamatangi headed in that direction now, failing to execute the offload but still playing it quickly for Cookie to nab fifteen metres from dummy half – a burst of momentum that saw the Bunnies pivot to the other side of the park, where Johnston flicked a wide one back in field, and Nikora reached out his full wingspan to prevent it finding Koloamatangi. News came down from the sheds that Arrow might not be returning, sobering news for a Rabbitohs outfit with Tatola already off the field.

The Johnston-Nikora show continued early in the next set, as the Rabbitohs winger narrowly avoided being dragged over the sideline by the Cronulla second rower, in tandem with Katoa, and yet this galvanized the visitors into the right edge attack they’d been searching for over the last couple of sets. Thompson barraged through Mulitalo to break the twenty and risked a messy offload for Latrell, who nevertheless scooped it up and made it half a metre out for Shaq, who made it half a metre from the left post before Murray charged hard on the right.

It took the combined scramble of Brailey and Wilton to hold him up and with the Cronulla line momentarily exhausted, Ilias booted a clutch grubber for Koloamatangi to dive on just before the dead ball line. The replay showed just how close big Keaon came here – he had the footy in both hands, then let it slip, only to almost regain contact, on the agonizing precipice of a fingertip putdown. In a nice moment of poetic justice, Mulitalo provided the pressure that denied the try, and this produced a levelling effect, with twelve minutes to go until the sheds.

There was a sense, now, that the next team to score would dominate the last part of the first forty, and the Sharkies received the next big advantage when Cam McInnes popped off the pine, making an immediate impact with a tough mid-set charge. Yet right when the hosts looked like they might be cresting again, Ilias slammed in with a well-timed low tackle to force the footy from Wilton’s grasp, in a rousing flashback to his opening shot on Mulitalo. The Bunnies had a scrum from their twenty and commenced with big runs from Shaq and Burgess.

Ilias was in his flow again now, dummying to clear McInnes, meaning Finucane and Wilton had to combine to shut him down on his eighth post-contact. Cookie took his fourth run a beat later and Ilias ended with a shallow kick that Graham recovered and rebooted but without any spectacular finish coming out of it. Both sides were on the cusp of another consolidation as Jack Williams made metres through Shaq, only for brother Latrell to deliver the best return of the game so far after scooping up the Steeden well beyond his own try line.

Latrell’s footwork was impecabble here, as he brushed off Wilton, copped Mulitalo around the ankles and still managed to offload a one-hander out to Thompson, who took it in both paws but was unable to survive a second attack from Wilton, who mirrored Ronaldo’s low show, twisting his quarry onto the turf and ricocheting the footy over the sideline. After all this to-and-fro, the Sharks finally had a close-range set, and true to the frustrated rhythm of this last passage, Kennedy misfired a left edge cut-out to deny Mulitalo a second putdown.

On the other side of the Steeden, a quick pick-up from Cookie elasticized the middle of the next South Sydney set, by bringing them out of their own forty, where a Williams ruck error bumped them down the park for a close-range stint of their own. Murray and Burgess steadied things up the middle, Murray made a second run, and Ilias concluded with a wraparound ball for Walker, who got through Wilton, bounced off Talakai, and was only brought down by a big Moylan effort at the ten. Souths were brimming with adrenalin now.

Sure enough, all that energy paid dividends a tackle later, with one of the simplest plays of the night. Returning to the clear crisp vision of his opening ten minutes, Ilias darted into the ten and popped a short one out for Koloamatangi, who dummied to send Talakai towards the wing, planted a left fend on Moylan, and got so close to the ground that Kennedy had no chance of stopping him. Even better, Latrell capped it off with a beautiful sideline kick, veering the Steeden left before it curved back between the crossbars to secure the converted try lead.  

Burgess took the first run on the restart, Shaq was settling more and more into extended minutes, Chee Kam added some heft on the third, and another terrific Cook pickup put Walker into enemy territory on tackle four. A Murray dummy created some nice movement out through Ilias and Koloamatangi but this right edge continued to pay inconsistent results, as Graham opted for an unnecessary offload that gifted the ball back to Cronulla, who didn’t waste any time resuming their rhythm, as Kennedy and Williams surged it up the middle third.

Trindall got back into gear now too, dummying a couple of times to send Ramien into the thirty, and while the ex-Knight might have been cleaned up on the last for the changeover, everything looked strong about the Sharkies now – they just needed one more sharp play to break open the South Sydney line. Accordingly, Koloamatangi hit back hard with one of his best runs tonight on play three of the next set, laying a platform for Ilias to bomb from the brink of the red zone, as all the escalating tension coalesced around the contest to collect it.

Mulitalo was a foot higher than Graham, but the South Sydney backliner still got a palm to it first, before Kennedy was held to have knocked it on, only for Cronulla to send up a Captain’s Challenge to annul the call. The Bunnies had gone from a full set ten out from the opposition line to another bracing attack from the visitors, with McInnes making good metres and popping out a short ball for Williams to add to his tally, before Nikora nabbed seven after contact back in field. Still on fire, McInnes dragged the defenders six on the very next tackle.

Even better, he got the offload back for Kaufusi to arrive at the cusp of the red zone, where a Moylan chip to the right produced a cascade of cardinal and myrtle chaos. Johnston lost it, Chee Kam was offside, and the Rabbitohs delivered the worst Challenge of 2023 so far in an attempt to wind back the momentum. This was Cronulla’s moment, and Nikora embodied that energy, skipping over Chee Kam on play two for what would have been a certain try if not for a last-ditch tackle on the turf from Murray, the clutchiest defence of the game so far.

Wilton added heft up the left edge, where it took three Rabbits to hold him up a few metres out, and Kaufusi carried his aggression a little further in field, where he came even closer to the chalk, before this superb sequence ended as it had to – with the footy moving through Moylan, whose long-range vision came into focus now, Trindall, who showed it for a subliminal second, and then Kennedy, who caught-and-passed for Katoa to take it in both hands, soar into space, descend Steeden-first, and rise to a rapturous Cronulla home crowd.

It was a cathartic moment after the spurious forward pass call, especially since Tass didn’t even get hands to him, as well as the climax of Trindall’s superb opening forty. Just as he’d dummied and bent the defensive line, so he now executed an even more languorous kick than Latrell’s conversion, aiming the footy directly at the left post only for it to curve back at the last minute. It was 12-12 heading into the sheds, and for now the Sharkies had all the momentum, meaning the Rabbitohs would have to make a rousing statement after the break. 

To add to their woes, the Bunnies were down to fifteen men as Mulitalo and Kaufusi took the first hit-ups, and Brailey won a penalty midway through the count when Murray found himself caught out at marker. Yet an enormous Burgess hit bent Williams right back – the first of a series of courageous defensive plays that would eventually crystallise around a second stanza sequel to Ilias’ superb save on Mulitalo. For the moment, however, Williams still made it to the forty, and a nice pass from Moylan ushered Ramien into the red zone the following play.

From there McInnes broke into space in the ten and popped it on for Kaufusi, who would have scored a rousing try if not for a mammoth combo from Latrell and Chee Kam to force the error on the line. This was the second great defensive play for the Rabbitohs in the back end of the game, and sure enough we were treated to a flashback of that Ilias-Mulitalo moment as Lachie took the kick just outside the Cronulla thirty and Ronaldo leaped a full metre above Thompson to lay both hands on it, only to fumble it in the air, annulling Murray’s subsequent knock on.

Just like that the Bunnies had the scrum fifteen out. Latrell’s left leg might have been heavily strapped but he still managed to slam into the ten, before brother Shaq came down within a metre of the left padding and Burgess barged through in his wake, requiring the combined heft of four Sharks to hold him up beneath the crossbar. Williams might have survived Burgess’ last hit but he now ended up head to to head with the big prop, and was taken off the park a moment later for an HIA that he would fail, as Toby Rudolf got back in amongst it.

South Sydney still had three tackles left and didn’t feel the need to vary the formula, as Shaq reprised his second play run, careening towards the left post, and Burgess again attempted to crash over beneath the crossbar. Yet the formula came apart, and Rudolf made an immediate impact, disheveling the Rabbitohs 10 just enough for him to mishandle the footy on the ground. After all that accumulating pressure the visitors didn’t get to their kick, so it was imperative now that they lean deeper into the defensive vision of that first Cronulla set.

Cookie, Ilias and Graham got them rolling by dragging Talakai ten metres sideways on tackle one, before Burgess, Murray, Chee Kam and, above all, Shaq, got their revenge on Rudolf for the Burgess hit-up and condensed all this escalating defensive acumen into the true spiritual sequel to the Ilias-Mulitalo save. Coming in hard and low, they dragged the Sharks benchman a couple of metres back, lifted him straight off the turf, and forced the footy free, winning the cardinal and myrtle another scrum fifteen out, another chance to make good on the last one.

They hovered around the left for the first couple of plays, Burgess steadied midway through the count, and then it all came together on the right edge, where Ilias reprised the scintillating timing that had set up the Koloamatangi try but now with Graham as the beneficiary. Cookie and Murray got rolling with a pair of clean wide balls and then the young halfback dug into the line, dragged Talakai out of position and flicked what was effectively a no-looker out for his centre to dash across a Muliatlo ankle tap and slam down the first points since the sheds.

You could feel the ripple effect of that combined hit on Rudolf as Graham rose to his feet with a roar and Chee Kam and Thompson piled on top in congratulations, in one of the most iconic images of South Sydney’s early 2023 season. Latrell had a good angle and slid it straight past the left post, bring his Bunnies to 18-12 with a little over thirty minutes on the clock. Three of the forwards responsible for demolishing Rudolf commenced the return, Shaq in full  footy flow on play one, and Chee Kam dragging McInnes and Rudolf a few metres on the second.

With Murray bringing it into opposition territory, the onus was on Rudolf to prove his mettle now, and he did so straight away, with twelve of the best post-contacts tonight, through Keaon and Cookie. Nevertheless, the set ended with a poor kick from Moylan that Mulitalo could only bat back to the South Sydney try line, where Latrell collected it, outpaced Moylan to hit the ten, broke through a Kaufusi ankle tap at the twenty, and finally succumbed to a low shot from Brailey, with McInnes and Nikora on top, to down him a metre from the thirty.

All in all, it was the best return of the night, and Thompson leaned into its vision, bumping off Moylan and eluding Wilton, surviving a last-ditch Rudolf ankle tap and reaching Cronulla territory by the time the ever-staunch McInnes finally brought him to ground. A quick dummy half pickup from Cookie meant Moale was at the forty on the next play, and while the Sharkies might have prevented this from being as catastrophic as the last two charges, the visitors were still advancing fast on the enemy line with an extra tackle, hitting the thirty on the third.

From there, Ilias opened up the red zone for Latrell, who popped it out for Johnston to absorb a Ramien tackle on the wing, before ushering Walker into the ten. Leaning into that escalating ball handling, Ilias opted to feed it back to his fullback on the last, only for Latrell to boot it too hard and so gift the Sharkies a twenty-metre restart. It was the first of several aborted attacking opportunities that would mark the next ten minutes as one of the great grinds, a sustained to-and-fro sequence that was peppered by uncharacteristic errors from both sides.

The first came two tackles into the next set, when Moylan reached out his arms to receive the footy from Brailey at dummy half but was already looking on his outside in anticipation of the subsequent sweep when he made contact with the Steeden, which he failed to collect securely. It was a poor sequel to the kick that Mulitalo had only just saved, and granted the Bunnies a midfield scrum, with Graham taking the first charge, and Murray barging through Wade Graham, who was fresh off the bench, to bring his team to the brink of the red zone.

Yet Shaq now mirrored Moylan’s error, taking his eyes of the footy for a critical millisecond, while Ramien won a penalty for a Chee Kam offside to ensure the first significant position in a few sets. The hosts were glimpsing a momentum shift now, with a full stint in Rabbitohs territory, as Kaufusi took the first hit-up and Kennedy dummied to make his way past Chee Kam and deep into the thirty. A right edge foray ended with a Ramien-Walker contest before play accelerated back in field, where Rudolf dragged Cookie, Murray and Shaq up to the ten.

Moylan seized the moment with a flick pass for Wilton to take a crack at the line, but cometh the hour cometh the man, as Ilias now delivered his second superb save of the game – a carbon copy of the first, as he came in hard and low, setting his sights on the Steeden, which ricocheted forward. The Bunnies had another scrum, this time from their ten, and while the Cronulla wall kept them twenty-five from their own line for the first three tackles, a quick pickup from Cookie and breakaway from Graham brought them five from halfway as Brailey cleaned it up.

Likewise, Koloamatangi bounced off a couple of attempted Moylan tackles to get Ilias in place for a deep kick from the forty. Kennedy had no pressure with the catch, but a belated chase from Graham was enough to barrage him back ten metres, especially once Shaq added his heft to the contact. In response, Ramien, Hamlin-Uele and Nikora contributed a monster trio of runs, exhausting the South Sydney defenders before Trindall put boot to ball down the right edge, where Latrell took it but was unable to make metres through Ramien and Graham.

The second stanza was officially settling into a slog, and a late shot from Nikora barely broke the rhythm, even if it did set up Latrell for a penalty kick 34 metres in front to bring his men to the biggest lead of the game so far. A barnstorming Burgess run opened the restart but the messiness was still there, as Murray reached out both arms in a futile attempt to save a forward dummy half ball from Cook and then coughed it up into a massive Graham hit. Nikora collected it on the full and had his eyes set on the Rabbitohs’ line, but the whistle soon blew.

The Sharks now had the scrum thirty-five out, as Rudolf launched into the twenty, and Moylan lobbed a sly ball across for Hamlin-Uele to execute what became arguably the best single run of the night outside of the tryscoring sequences. Breaking through ankle taps from Graham and Koloamatangi at the ten, he tumbled to ground, got up again into a Latrell tackle, and wrestled his way onto the chalk, where Moale held the fort as last line of defence. Two quick play-the-balls now enabled Brailey to set up a pair of big crash plays as Cronulla ground down.

The first was into Graham, who came down right on the line with Moale on top, Murray on the side, and Koloamatangi beneath him, while the second was out to Wilton, who smashed into Ilias, Trindall and Moale, who had done a mountain of work defensively on this set. Trindall ended by booting it out to the right edge, where Nikora tapped it back, Kennedy regained possession, and Johnston ended up with it. Add a high shot from Katoa as the South Sydney winger was tumbling to ground, and the Rabbitohs were finally out of their own end.

Ilias put boot to ball forty out and while Kennedy took it clean, Tass and Johnston not only prevented a return but came close to dragging him over the sideline. In an attempt to regain control of the park, Moylan started an early spread, shifting it out for Talakai who was nevertheless unable to link up with the short side due to some committed South Sydney defence. It took a few dogged post-contacts from Rudolf to drag Cook over halfway, and even then Thompson made around fifteen metres on the return off a long low kick from Trindall.

Hamlin-Uele now had a crack at reprising his earlier run with a big shot on Walker and found himself put on report for what was deemed high contact. The Bunnies made the most of the penalty, as Burgess charged towards the ten, where he was halted standing by Rudolf, before Graham ended up delivering the sequel to the Hamlin-Uele charge with the hardest hit of the year so far on Moale, who was ricocheted a good metre back, but didn’t lose control of the footy. That courage galvanised the set, and set the scene for Ilias’ next big show of leadership.

Not only did the young halfback take on Rudolf and Brailey five out from the line, but he ended up as a key ingredient of another right edge try a few plays later. In the interim, Murray sent it wide to Walker, whose catch-and-pass to Tass wasn’t enough to open up the left edge in the face of a committed Ramien shot. By the time Burgess took his second charge in field – a muted and less organised version of his opening carry – it felt like the set had come full circle, which just made it all the more remarkable when history repeated in a different way.

Just when things were diffusing, Ilias dummied, Latrell double dummied, and Graham moved even more fluidly through Talakai, caught out of position, and Mulitalo, whose ankle tap in the ten was even less effective than for Stretch’s first putdown. By the time Moylan and Kennedy tumbled on top it was too little too late, while the Sharkies got another blow when the other Graham was sent to the bin for the contact on Moale, as Latrell lined up the tee and brought his men to an imposing 26-12 margin. It would be Souths’ last converted try tonight.

The kick was a beauty too, veering out towards the left post before self-correcting so dramatically that it actually grazed the right, to the chagrin of the booing home crowd. It had been a pretty impressive showing for a Rabbitohs outfit down to fifteen for the second stanza, and so the onus was squarely on the Sharkies to change the rhythm. Latrell was raring to break through the line on play two of the restart, Shaq took his twelfth run a beat later, and Burgess brought Wilton to the twenty, where Cookie tried to grubber them to a repeat stint.

Instead, Katoa scooped it up close to the dead ball line, curved his way back into the field of play, and made it all the way to the ten by the time Graham collected him. This set the scene for a rollicking Cronulla set, anchored in a fifteen-metre charge from Ramien up the right edge, and concluding with a Trindall bomb that Latrell had to somersault to take on the ground, albeit still managing to flick it on for Thompson to break the twenty. Ilias rolled it low from the forty on the last but was unable to find the twenty, as the last ten minutes arrived.

Moylan’s next kick ricocheted off Murray, and with McInnes diving on it the Sharkies had a fresh set inside the South Sydney red zone. Talakai drove it deep into the twenty, and Finucane into the ten, thanks to some good dummy half service from Brailey, before they swept all the way to the right wing, where Ramien crossed over and would have scored if not for a mammoth effort from Johnston to get beneath the football. Fresh on the field, Blake Taaffe then combined with Murray and Cook to hold up Hamlin-Uele on the following tackle.

Ramien had come so close that the Sharkies were galvanised to fight to the last – and it all came together beautifully, starting with a nice wide ball for Brailey that Moylan took ten out from the left padding. Dummying low, he swayed from side to side, and eventually dropped it on the boot, sliding such a subliminal grubber along the grass that even Ilias couldn’t save it this time, as Wilton popped it down without breaking stride, climaxing a brilliantly timed run. Latrell was too late as well, and so Cronulla were at 18 after Trindall added the two points.

Hamlin-Uele took the first hit-up on the restart, straight into Cookie and Taaffe, and Nikora delivered a hard run to break the twenty, where Tass got pinged for an illegal strip with Chee Kam also in the tackle. If the Bunnies hadn’t wasted their Challenge early in the game they might have contested this, although it didn’t matter in the end, as Trindall failed to find touch with the kick, an error that felt like the death knell for the visitors, as well as for the game itself, marking as it did the start of a spotty period for some of the staunchest players tonight.

Tass bounced back from the Nikora strip with a big left foot step on Ramien to get Ilias in place for a kick at the twenty, and yet the South Sydney halfback was also declining now, booting it too far to gift the opposition a twenty-metre restart. Talakai contributed a barnstorming run to hit his forty on tackle one, and actually had time to swing away from Murray and shape the offload, only to find nobody in support. Still, the Sharkies were methodical, as Katoa hit halfway, McInnes broke the forty, and Moylan arrived at the thirty.

It was agonising, then, when Brailey became the next casualty of this late match doldrums with a call of forward pass that was every bit as questionable as the Tass strip. It was time for some eyes-up footy, and Latrell stepped up with a kick straight off the scrum, all the way to the ten, where Katoa and Tass converged on it. Not only did the Cronulla backliner scoop it up first but he managed to stay in the field of play as his opponent tumbled over him, in what was probably the best gymnastic display of the night, and certainly the sharpest on the turf.

Latrell’s clutch kick had simply returned possession to the Sharks and yet McInnes now became the next player to suffer a purple patch, by simply putting down a standard dummy half ball from Brailey. Souths had another scrum, this time from thirty-five out, as Wade Graham returned to the park with three minutes on the clock, and Moale dragged three defenders towards the left post, in a good hard run that prompted Cook to have a crack at crashing over himself, with a rightwards pivot that saw him briefly brush against the padding.

With one tackle left, Ilias took command at dummy half for Walker to boot through a grubber that Kennedy collected on the line and brought five metres out from the chalk. It was the last gasp for the Sharks, as Trindall bent the defensive line for Nikora, who wrestled enough wiggle room from a Moale hit to execute a superb one-handed offload right on the ground for Moylan, who sent it on in the hopes that Katoa would make some metres up the wing. Instead, Cronulla’s evening came to an end when their second try-scorer failed to rein it in.

It was their fifteenth mistake of the night, leaving the Bunnies with a minute on the clock for one last burst of cardinal and myrtle magic. They waited until the last five seconds, when Latrell insisted on the brilliance of his own boot, in a game where the two halfbacks had stolen much of the spotlight, by launching the field goal straight through the posts before sharing a high five with Thompson – a rousing finale for a South Sydney outfit with a big job against Penrith next week, and a motivator for Cronulla as they prep to meet the Eels at Commbank.