Penrith were raring for a win after their field goal loss to Adam Reynolds in Round 1 and for the first 66 minutes of their match against the little general’s former team it looked like they were guaranteed to get the competition points. While they still came away with a 16-10 margin, the Bunnies showed real heart in the fourth quarter, summoning two prodigious team tries and very nearly levelling the score on the final play of the night, when some Dylan Edwards heroics prevented Alex Johnston from slamming down a Michael Chee Kam grubber.

With that nail-biting finish, Latrell Mitchell had lost all seven of his games against Penrith as a Rabbitoh and the cardinal and myrtle had failed to win back-to-back season openers for the fourth consecutive year. To some extent that reflected the absence of Tevita Tatola for a concussion and Jai Arrow for a hamstring but the big men still did a mountain of work up the middle while the mountain men simply executed the same footy flow that really should have won them the game against Brisbane – and should have garnered even more points tonight.

South Sydney had first possession and Tom Burgess took the first carry towards the ten, where he was repelled by a wave of Penrith defenders. Keaon Koloamatangi put up his hand for tackle two and was almost dragged back to the ten as well, leaving it for Davvy Moale to ferry it to the twenty before Chee Kam etched out another tough five up the left edge. Cam Murray shaped for Burgess only for a pack comprised of Isaah Yeo, Luke Garner and Moses Leota to drag him back to the thirty, which was where Lachie Ilias took his first boot as well.

Stephen Crichton collected it behind the thirty and could only make a couple of metres on the return, thanks to a good Campbell Graham chase, and so Edwards opted for a second return a play later, tucking it under the arm and barging his way into the line. Mitch Kenny made a good dummy half run to hit the forty, Garner started his metre tally with five post-contacts through Graham to approach the red zone, and Nathan Cleary launched his first bomb, almost making it an assist as Liam Martin outleaped Johnston to get his hands to it.

Tumbling over Latrell, Martin didn’t manage to take it clean, leaving it to Yeo to bring it over the line, but the try was soon denied due to a replay that showed the footy striking the Penrith second-rower just over the margin between shoulder and upper arm – a pity, since Yeo’s take had been almost as impressive, an enormous jump on the chalk in the face of a tough Isaiah Tass contest. Izaac Thompson brought the footy to the twenty in no time, the metres coming a bit easier now as Burgess drove Garner and James Fisher-Harris over the thirty on play two.

Chee Kam continued to build position on the left, gathering ten under his belt now, before a deft dummy half dash from Damien Cook and a short charge from Murray brought Ilias to the cusp of halfway for his second kick tonight. Sunia Turuva had to bend down on one knee to take it and even then was dragged all the way back to his red zone by a committed Keaon-Graham combo. Nevertheless Izack Tago was at the cusp of Souths territory midway through, as a nice inside pass from Yeo opened up some Fish position and Penrith’s first left spread.

Jarome Luai dragged four defenders to the thirty to get his halfback in position for the attacking kick and this time the tap-back worked, Tago having learned from Martin’s example. Fish missed it on the first bounce but Leota was there to clean it up and shift it back in for the cult prop to lob a beautiful one-hander out to Kenny, who followed with a languorous wide ball for Critta to take it on the fly, shift it out to his right hand, nod at Brian To’o on his outside and then go it alone, slamming it down just before Cody Walker banged him over the sideline.

Between Fish’s one-handed pass and Critta’s one-handed putdown this was footy poetry, even if Cleary sailed his first conversion attempt across the front of the posts after slotting through 2/2 against Brisbane last week. The key members of the tryscoring sequence anchored the first half of the restart too, as Fish took the opening hit-up, Leota the second and Kenny the third, before Martin made up for his botched tap-back by muscling it all the way into the Bunnies’ forty, as Cleary booted an even wobblier and more dangerous bomb.

With Thompson only just bringing it to ground half a metre over the try line with Luai and Tago piling on top of him it looked like Souths might have another positional struggle on their hands, so it was a good time for them to receive their first penalty with a Luai offside. Keaon showed Fish he could charge just as hard on tackle one, Fish combining with Garner to do a mountainous job to keep him in his stride, and Cookie stepped into the spotlight three plays later with a dummy half run to hit the twenty with a offload to bring Walker right to the ten.

From there the cardinal and myrtle settled into a rapid left sweep of their own, albeit with Critta cleaning up Johnston, and a Penrith wall quickly closing in as Latrell tried to break through in the same spot. Still, the mountain men had to work it off their own line now, as Critta and Turuva laid the foundation, and Kenny bolstered it with a quick pick up and pass for Garner to cover the last fifteen metres of Panthers territory. Finding himself with the footy on play four, Cleary opted to kick for position, leading to the first great battle of the fullbacks.

It was a long-distance battle, as Latrell read the bounce brilliantly, pulling back to allow the Steeden to roll over the sideline for the first real chink in Penrith’s attacking armour. Burgess and Ilias helped cement the rhythm shift with good work up the middle, although Luai came in hard to ensure that Cookie couldn’t extemporise too much in their wake, before making a similarly heroic low shot on Moale a play later to ensure that Ilias was still outside the opposition thirty when he booted it in the face of a committed charge from a raring Kenny.

Try as Walker and Graham might, they couldn’t drag Edwards back in goal from where he collected it eight metres out, and so Tago worked it off the line and over the ten, before Turuva took on Burgess and Moale to almost bring it to the twenty. Bizza now provided a terrific recovery run, collecting a nice pass from his fullback and making twelve post-contacts through Chee Kam to break the forty and galvanise his men into a few more surges out of their own end over the next quarter, producing a burst of confidence, if not total dominance.

Cleary capped the set off by sending Martin into enemy territory and then booting it high to the left edge, where Thompson came down on hands and knees and even then only just contained it. Walker’s next kick was pretty paltry by comparison, a low one that Shaq redeemed by lifting Edwards clean off the turf to prevent too much of a return. Still, the Panthers got a bump up the park with an early offside from Cookie, who also took the brunt of Leota’s next charge before Martin took it to the brink of the red zone with tackles to spare.

Nevertheless, he shaped for a relatively rare offload, but with Burgess around his legs was unable to prevent the bobble into Chee Kam’s chest – a good spot from Atkins, since this was the smallest fumble of the match so far. South Sydney had the scrum from the twenty, and Burgess was a man on a mission as he barged into Leota and Yeo, trampling so hard over an extra low shot from Kenny that the Penrith hooker had to make way for Soni Luke thirteen minutes into the match after weathering sixty-seven last week at BlueBet against the Broncos.

Burgess wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down either, hefting his full weight into Luke when the tackle count resumed, before Thompson and Graham cornered Turuva to prevent him doing much with the return. Shaq, Cookie and Murray gave Tago the same treatment, driving him back towards the ten, and yet once again Penrith found a way to recoup their position, this time thanks to Edwards, who bumped off Shaq for a couple of extra metres, galvanising the spirit that Yeo needed to make more Penrith post-contacts through Chee Kam.

With that charge the mountain men were out of their own end, as Cleary’s kick found Latrell on the full, and Leota, Luai and Garner piled onto the South Sydney custodian. The visitors now received some much-needed field position, starting with a slow peel from Luai early in the count that laid the platform for Shaq and Burgess to work it up the middle, big Tom popping the second phase back for Murray to shift it out through Shaq for Keaon to hit the forty. Shaq was really stepping up now too, taking another staunch carry into Yeo and Leota.

Even better, a ruck error from Leota produced a full set in the red zone, where Ilias gave Keaon a crack beside the right post, only for Garner to plant himself between the footy and the ground. Cookie shifted a bullet ball through Murray back to the left, where Burgess attempted to smash over beside the other post but found himself sandwiched between Cleary and Edwards. No sooner had the ref suggested Cleary might have stripped the Steeden than the Penrith skipper sent it upstairs and his call was true, showing no ruck interference on the line.

After only two tackles on their chalk the Panthers had a scrum from their ten, as Martin executed strong metres up the right and Yeo popped it back inside for Fish to do what he does best. Following in the footsteps of the veteran forward, Garner was next up the middle, adding to his 50 minutes and 90 metres against Brisbane, and yet this showcase from the big bopper ended abruptly with a wayward pass from Yeo that Martin couldn’t contain. With a scrum from halfway, the Rabbits had a chance to make good on their last period of position.

Tass put his hand up for the first carry, then Chee Kam, who was repelled from the forty by a Yeo-Fish combo, before Shaq targeted the middle and Murray bent the line, sending it back through Walker for Tass to maintain the focus on the left edge. A quick dummy half pickup saw Walker and Murray approaching the chalk, so it was agonising when Critta scooped up Walker’s kick before it could land in the hands of Chee Kam, who was having a frustrating start so far. Another South Sydney putdown had gone begging as the second quarter arrived.

Walker and Cookie launched themselves at Crichton but couldn’t get him back over the line, before Burgess and Murray rallied to prevent Bizza clearing too much territory, and Shaq, Chee Kam and Graham combined for a three-man hit on Garner. Turuva finally scooted his way to the forty, which is about where Cleary booted it as well, although without much of a chase Johnston racked up fifteen on the return. A beat later Daniel Suluka-Fifita was making his first carry as a Rabbitoh, although a Luai ankle tap ensured that he didn’t take it very far.

In fact, the Bunnies didn’t even finish the set, as Chee Kam shaped for an offload only to lose it on the ground, gifting Penrith a scrum just outside their forty. A Graham overchase gifted Tago a couple of extra metres on play one, while a Suluka-Fifita ruck error and Garner-Fish offload ensured that the mountain men were inside the opposition forty off a good Edwards-Leota pass. Garner cleaned up a tricky ball in the face of Keaon and Murray on the other side, Yeo muscled it into the red zone and Cleary took hold of the reins for the next period of play.

Showing it a couple of times, he floated a wide one out for Turuva to pivot off his left boot and come to ground five metres from the line in the face of a Thompson-Ilias combo. From there, Yeo took another run up the middle, this time coming to ground a metre out, and again Cleary targeted the right edge, albeit with a slightly underweighted kick that didn’t quite gain the velocity needed to cross the chalk, instead sitting up on the try line for Suluka-Fifita to make up for his spotty start by diving on it like he was the wiriest man on the Souths roster.  

No surprise then that Leota slammed into the ex-Rooster a moment later to show him who was boss, although it didn’t prevent Latrell from executing a flamboyant 20/40 attempt that Edwards only just saved on the sideline, as Latrell himself paired with Chee Kam and Tass to bring the full brunt of a combined chase upon him. Turuva continued to add speed up the middle, Fish built on his platform, and Spencer Leniu was readying himself, as Luke made a stealthy pickup and dummied it a few times to glimpse the ten with four Bunnies on his back.

Cleary was the next with ball in hand, driving it deep into the line and lofting it out to Critta to come to ground deep in the corner, thereby setting South Sydney their biggest positional challenge thus far, especially with an efficient Fish-Tass clean up behind the ten metre line on play one. Now was the time for the big men to step up, as Suluka-Fikfita, Keaon and Shaq rammed into a wall of Panthers jerseys, getting Ilias in place to hoist one of the highest kicks so far from halfway. Nevertheless, it paved the way for Turuva’s best backline collect so far.

Not only did the little winger bring it back over the forty with Jed Cartwright on his back but he managed to win a holding down penalty from the South Sydney 15 in the process, ushering in the next period of Penrith flow as Martin took on Chee Kam, Cleary showed a big dummy for Luai to almost get around Graham at the red zone, and then set up some more left edge energy for Turuva, who hit the twenty before shifting it back inside for his skipper. It was all Cleary now, his next ball across to Yeo, who was efficiently defended by a clinical Keaon read.

The master’s last move was to drift across the park, and make the most of Luke shaping right from dummy half to dribble it back to the left, where Graham had no option but to bang it into touch. Thompson and Cartwright both contested the dropout but didn’t contest the call that the winger had knocked it forward into the chest of Campbell, even though they might have made a case here. Add a Graham offside early in the next count and it felt like a tipping point for a Rabbitohs outfit visibly exhausted by wave after wave of Panthers down their end.

Edwards tucked it under the left arm and like Luai almost got around Graham before Yeo took another crack from close-range on the third and Cleary effected yet another directional shift, shaping left but popping it back inside for Leniu to follow in Isaah’s footsteps. Finally, this forward-heavy energy culminated with Garner, who had been disappointed against Brisbane last week and came infinitesimally closer to his first try in Penrith colours now, as he received a wide ball from Yeo and crashed down with Latrell round his shoulders, just over the chalk.

With a repeat view, however, it became clear that Latrell’s commitment and belief had forced a bobble at the very death, in the greatest defensive moment for the Rabbitohs so far, who had absorbed and neutralised all the escalating Penrith energy of the last few minutes. Suluka-Fifita rolled them back into the defence, Tass was driven back seven metres by a Critta-Bizza combo, Walker sent Chee Kam up the left in his centre’s wake only for Martin to once more step up in defence, as Walker ended with a shallow chip that Edwards took seamlessly.

It was to be the start of a sequence in which Edwards took Walker’s kicks like he was on a training run, although a strong Rabbitohs chase ensured that the mountain men spent the first half of this set within their twenty. Turuva was the man to break open the defence, getting Cleary in place for a bold 40/20 attempt from within the thirty that didn’t quite come off. Still, the ballsiness of it was a galvanising gesture in itself, even if it was somewhat dissipated with a pause that saw Graham and Luai formally warned for undue interference.

With a sizeable metre tally under his belt already, Shaq was the best Bunny to resume the momentum, and yet Walker’s aggro got the best of him a few plays later, when he swung an arm into Kenny at marker and lost his balance, tumbling over the footy in the clumsiest display of the night. More than the error, this was a vision of Souths losing their composure as half time loomed, while the Panthers only continued to consolidate, Critta and Martin now making inroads up the right and Edwards popping it back in through Kenny for some good Yeo metres.

Shaq did well to prevent Leniu gaining too much ground after bumping off a couple of defenders, and so the hosts looked to Cleary, who showed a big dummy for Kenny to drift into the red zone, where he looked to receive a fresh set off a Cookie penalty. Instead, the Bunnies sent it upstairs to prove that their hooker’s hand had been facing the opposite direction from the footy, with no technical intention to strip, in what turned out to be one of the best challenges in Round 2, since the Panthers would almost certainly have scored here.

With Luke off the park for an HIA and Matt Eisenhuth leaving the pine, the Rabbits again relied on their big men, who laid a platform for Latrell to showcase his best run in a while by breaking through Luai amidst a host of other defenders and reaching the opposition thirty. Critta shut down the momentum with a mammoth tackle on Chee Kam, and the entire set ended with a whimper when Edwards not only took another Walker chip on the full but offloaded on the ground for Crichton to pop it out for Bizza to add more muscle to the return further infield.

Now the Panthers got their penalty from Cookie, with a second effort that set up Leniu to roll them into the thirty in his best charge so far, before Cartwright responded with his best defence so far, a legs tackle that closed the gap just before Cleary could slice through it. With his halves partner momentarily thwarted, Luai stepped up by shifting the play right and then sending the footy back in for Garner to take a crack at the crossbars. Kenny continued in his momentum, barging into the left padding where Cookie and Latrell combined to hold him up.

A play later Garner had his second disappointment of the night, scooping up the Steeden from dummy half and grounding it between Cartwright and Cookie – a millisecond after the whistle range out for an incorrect play-the-ball from Kenny. For the second time the Bunnies seemed to have contained the Penrith surge, and with less than two on the clock they appeared likely head to the sheds with a fairly respectable 4-0 deficit against the 2022 champs, losing any shot of a try of their own as Edwards leaped up to calmly collect about Walker kick in the air.

With fifty seconds on the clock Penrith got stuck into their last set before the break, as Cartwright and Cookie dragged Bizza back four or five metres and Eisenhuth failed to make much position through a Keaon-Chee Kam combo. Momentum was lagging, and seemed vanquished altogether when Garner dropped the ball a play later, and yet the force of his toughest charge of the game galavanised Luai into extending the leadership he’d just showed on the South Sydney line, with one of the best individual clutch efforts of his career to date.

Assuming, correctly, that the ex-Tiger had lost the ball backwards, Luai scooped it up, outpaced Cartwright, got past Shaq, and booted it off his shin as Thompson brought him to ground, levering it at just the right angle for Tago to take it on the bounce and curve around Johnston to score untouched. In a poetic ending to the first stanza, the third Garner disappointment ended up lifting the team as a whole, as Critta slotted through the extras after the siren as Cleary headed to the sheds with what looked like a mild quad or groin issue.

Nevertheless, he was cleared to return for a methodical first set back, as Leniu brought the Steeden to the ten, Turuva added to his top-of-the-table 133 metres by breaking the twenty, Eisenhuth charged it to the thirty, Martin to the forty and Yeo to halfway, where Cleary booted it high with no apparent issue. Johnston collected it cleanly but with Critta, Bizza and Martin up in his face he had no chance of bringing it back over the red, meaning it fell to Cartwright and Suluka-Fifita in particular to bring Ilias to the halfway line for his first kick back.

Thompson got both hands to it and yet couldn’t hold on, so the Panthers were off again, as Leniu continued to lead from the front, notching up twelve metres now despite the best efforts of Cookie. Edwards was also in a forward-like state of mind, tucking it under the right arm and laying the platform for Cleary to put boot to ball at the thirty. Again, Johnston was safe, and for a moment it looked like a few post-contacts from Cartwright midway through might galvanise the set, only for the interchanger to fumble the play-the-ball with Luai on top.

This marked the start of a sustained period of home position as they packed a scrum from halfway in the light of the full moon rising over Penrith Stadium. Luke had enjoyed a few Koroisau-like moments tonight and got another one now, dummying outside only to duck back in field and open up the thirty on tackle two for Yeo, who risked adding a couple of post-contacts through Cartwright and Cookie only to have the ball stripped by the South Sydney hooker, who in a further twist dropped it in turn to gift the Panthers a full set in the twenty.

Leniu continued to be staunch, making two charges on the left edge on this set, the first in the face of Keaon and Suluka-Fifita on tackle two, the second off a beautiful pair of passes from the halves – arcing wide ball from Cleary, sneaky wraparound pass from Luai. Luke continued his flow by dropping it on the boot, leaving Chee Kam with no option but to slide onto his knees and pump it into touch. Penrith had gone from a full set in opposition territory, to a full set in the opposition twenty, to a dropout, and now a penalty as Latrell sent it short.

It was the lowest point of the game for South Sydney so far as Cleary, now fully in control of the tee after Critta had taken over kicking duties before the break, slotted through the two to make it twelve unanswered. The Bunnies had to defend like their life depended on it and Cookie started by commandeering a three-man pack to repel Leniu from his own ten. Still, a committed run from Martin into Tass and Graham was enough to rejuvenate the set, not only because he made fifteen, or bumped off Walker, but because he tempted Tass to hold down.

Penrith had 6-2 penalties as they settled into another stint in Rabbitohs territory, where Luai continued to extemporise brilliantly. Finding himself trapped on the left edge he darted back in field to set up Luke for his most questing dummy-and-run so far – all the way across to the right wing with a Koroisau-like fluency to set up a mad Martin charge. Luai was more contained on the left a play later, thanks to a desperate Graham-Thompson combo, but Cleary’s chip to the right post was all assurance – and the Bunnies’ response was all heart too.

Tass went for it on the line, as did Walker, and with both men missing it Chee Kam brought it to ground as Eisenhuth piled on top. Fifty minutes in, and without a point to their name, the visitors treated this set as a consolidation exercise, as Walker did well to pick up a low ball from Murray and then sent it out to Johnston, only for the wiry winger to be thwarted by a legs tackle from To’o. Likewise Luke charged the line to dissuade Ilias from the kick, resulting in an awkward left sweep that ended with Chee Kam flicking it forward from behind his back.

With Murray pinged for dangerous contact on Edwards on play one, the Panthers were digging back into Rabbitohs territory once again, and had Leota in their arsenal once more. His barnstorming run into Murray and Shaq set the scene for the tackles that followed, most notably a Yeo ball that enabled Eisenhuth to meet Chee Kam and Cookie at the twenty, and then drag them both three metres into it. A Luke-catalysed left sweep saw Cleary putting Garner five metres out, before Leota dragged both Mitchell brothers and Murray to the chalk.

All that escalating energy came together on the next play, as this grunt work from the big bopper crystallised into a subliminal sequence of pure Penrith timing and some more footy genius from Cleary, who double pumped and sent the Steeden between decoy runners Edwards and Martin for Critta to bring in Johnson and pop the no-look assist out for Bizza to beat Tass in the corner. As To’o leaped superhero-like through the air to land Steeden-first, this was pure Penrith showmanship, bringing them an imposing sixteen unanswered points.

Nevertheless these would also be their last points of the night, as Cleary grazed the kick off the front of the left post, and the Bunnies worked to a final quarter that would end with them six points shy of golden point. You wouldn’t have guessed it from the restart though, as Turuva continued to prove himself a real trooper, putting his whole body on the line for a huge forward-like tackle in Fish’s wake, before Burgess and Chee Kam came in to add their heft to the defence, and Leota was driven back over the red line by a Burgess-Chee Kam combination.

Martin continued to add the critical electricity to the attack, dragging Walker, Chee Kam and Murray seven metres to the thirty, where Cleary and Luai sent it out through Garner for Turuva to boot it along the sideline. Latrell neutralised it, albeit without cracking his twenty, while Graham found it difficult to make much headway through Fish and Tago, and Johnston was also thwarted by a Luke-Yeo hit, meaning it fell to Burgess to mirror Martin’s post-contacts. He only made a couple through Martin himself, with Yeo and Leota helping out too.

Keaon did a bit better on the next carry, propelling a Yeo-led pack to halfway, where Ilias took the kick, but the Panthers asserted their own attacking prowess by spreading it early for Tago, who elasticized the left edge before Cartwright and Thompson got to him. Turuva leaned into the same escalating energy by almost tumbling straight through Cartwright, and Edwards ran it into enemy territory, where Jaeman Salmon showcased his freshness off the bench by making fifteen more, setting up a Cleary-Luai no-looker that should have meant real danger.

Unfortunately, Garner found himself in front of the footy, meaning this whole left edge sequence came to an abrupt halt, and leaving it to a second Salmon run to crack the red zone, where Cleary made up for his disappointment a few tackles ago with a mercurial grubber that Thompson had room enough to contain in theory, but in practice skidded with such unpredictable volatility across the grass that the South Sydney winger took an extra beat to collect it, flicking it forward with the fingertips before recovering it a split second off the turf.

This was real game of inches stuff, since in that brief hesitation the Penrith defence were able to gain another dropout and a full set in the Rabbitohs twenty, Cleary supplementing his dexterity with dedication as he took a close range charge two tackles in. Fish was rampant on the left but Cartwright was up to the task and Yeo took a crack at the right post, where Burgess, Cook and Murray were waiting for him, the contact from Burgess in particular forcing an error in the play-the-ball that saw Cleary boot it even as Atkins was blowing the whistle.

The echo of Garner’s first frustration, also the result of a clumsy play-the-ball, was mildly deflating here, providing the Bunnies with a fresh burst of energy as the final quarter drew near. Keaon tapped into that flow with an offload at the thirty to Cookie, who was sufficiently thwarted by Leota in the second phase that the visitors pivoted to an abrupt left shift, where a wide ball from Latrell to Johnston might have been the critical difference in a game lacking the defensive vision of Bizza, who made his second terrific ankle tap on the Rabbitohs flyer.

Regrouping the attack for a second time, the Bunnies returned to the middle, where Moale added some solid metres for Ilias to put boot to ball forty-five metres out for a floater that Edwards balletically took a metre above the ground, in a poetic summary of his reliability and skill beneath the kicks this evening. The final quarter of the match had arrived and the cardinal and myrtle were still scoreless, and yet Latrell was clearly still hungry for his first win over Penrith in Rabbitohs hues, and South Sydney’s first season opener back-to-backs since 2019.

Critta, Turuva and Leota contributed more and more spectacular runs to the next set, meaning that Cleary was at his own forty for possibly his best kick of the night – a towering spiral bomb that forced the most contortedly courageous collect of the game from Thompson too. Coming down on one knee, his face at the level of Tago’s impending knees, and with Luai slamming in on top, he was never going to contain it, but it was the effort that counted here. Penrith had the scrum, moving it through Luai and Edwards until Tago was a few metres out.

They remained on the left now, as Yeo put in some nice footwork to dodge around Burgess and bring Cook and Murray in for a second wave, and Chee Kam proved his mettle in the face of a big Fish charge. After the briefest of forays back in field they condensed this left edge energy into a sweep – too rapidly as it turned out, since Tago knocked on the Luai cut-out with Thompson up in his face. The Bunnies had gone from defending to packing a scrum at their ten, where the Panthers piled on to prevent Tass getting even a glimpse of the red zone.

Chee Kam only made five on tackle two, Moale had to really work for ten by the time that Fish, Yeo and Salmon tumbled onto him, so it was looking like slim pickings for Murray until he received a critical penalty off some incidental high contact from Yeo. Chee Kam might not have added any metres on the next play but Burgess made up for it with a rambunctious fourteen to hit the twenty, while Murray added to the acceleration with a quick ball out to Ilias, starting a sweep that ended with the next pass finding Thompson too low, on the boot.

At least Thompson got to Tago, who had scooped it up, before he could do much damage along the sideline. Still, a strong Luke run brought the Panthers into enemy territory, where another Cleary torpedo ricocheted back in such a crazy fifteen-metre trajectory that it defied even Yeo, catching him offside as he found it landing on his chest. Cleary’s brilliance with the boot had worked against him, gifting the Bunnies a full set down Penrith’s end, where Burgess again added heft midway through and Murray dummied to hit the red across Kenny and Yeo.

This right side dexterity laid the platform for a remarkable display of dexterity on the other wing – just the collective instinct and ingenuity the Bunnies needed at this late stage in the game. Walker flicked it out to Latrell, who straightened in the face of Cleary and sent it on to Chee Kam, who in turn shaped to offload when he was almost on the turf and then had another crack a millisecond before his elbow grazed the grass, somehow defying Critta’s contact to lob the second phase back to Latrell, who did well to collect it low on the ground.

From there, the custodian turned around to face his distant try line and flicked it on to assist Johnston, who leaped into the air to defy Edwards and land Steeden-first, in a nice riposte to Bizza’s showmanship on the wing. It was a renewed Rabbitohs outfit that commenced the restart, even if the Panthers did well to hem them in, and yet they lost momentum when Ilias booted the kick across the sideline on the full. Fish was back in their thirty on play two, popping a one-handed offload back for Yeo to reach the twenty before Souths could breathe.

With Salmon bumping off Burgess to meet Ilias and Cookie at the ten, and Leota slamming in to Latrell and Chee Kam, the Rabbitohs seemed to be setting up for a Cleary field goal, only to swing left for the halfback to pop through a grubber that Thompson desperately dove on before winning a penalty off some Luai crowding a beat later. It was a bit of a tough call, despite Murray’s protestations, but the challenge proved unsuccessful, and so the visitors managed to disburden themselves of another bout of Penrith position deep in their own end.

Three plays later, Shaq set up one of the best charges of the night for Latrell by holding up Kenny, Leota and Salmon for a few seconds and playing the ball fast for Cook to pop it out for Walker to feed back into the custodian. Latrell then met Leota and Kenny, took advantage of their exhaustion from defending Shaq, and busted through them both, before he was halted by Yeo round the waist at the twenty, but not without twisting around offloading back through Kenny to Cook, who unfortunately didn’t see Fish coming up for a tackle from behind.

Nevertheless this was a strong consolidator, especially when Shaq took another hard charge into Yeo and Leota, laying down metres for Walker to expand with a cut-out to Tass, who succumbed to a pinpoint Critta tackle with Bizza coming up in support, before To’o ducked under Shaq to hit the ten and Crichton made the twenty, translating the conviction of their defence straight into attack to help Penrith work it off their own line. For a brief beat Souths defended them well up the middle, but Luai’s chase on Johnston quickly restored their flow.

Thompson, too, was dragged back by a Leniu-Fish combo, while Keaon was forced to retreat five metres from the thirty in the face of a hard Martin hit, and even Shaq proved unable to garner metres when confronted by a gutsy Salmon effort. One of the most lacklustre South Sydney sets of the evening came to an end when Blake Taaffe used his first touch of the game to put down a wide ball from Walker at the thirty – a pretty stark contrast to Edwards, who was all restless energy as he looked for a way past the stand-in Bunnies fullback on play one.

Leniu was inside the ten a beat later, where Yeo followed by smashing into a Cookie brick wall, and Taaffe made up for his gaffe with a tough stop on Leniu at the line. Continuing this parade of the big men, Martin came closer than any of them, reaching out through Keaon to score, only to lose it at the last minute, thanks mainly to Ilias’ effort on top. It had been a survival set for the Rabbits, with Ilias wiping down his forehead, and his men visibly fatigued as they packed the scrum from the thirty, desperate to make another dent before the siren.  

A wide ball from Latrell to Walker immediately gave this set a different flavour, paving the way for the Bunnies to break their thirty. They were still a bit stuck up the middle, with Tass and Chee Kam failing to find metres, much as the set came to an abrupt end with Murray knocking on midway through the count while trying to force the pass to Shaq. In fact, as the Panthers packed a scrum from halfway it looked like the Rabbitohs might have scored their last, especially when a nice dummy half run from Kenny set up Fish to glimpse the twenty.

Martin’s run was even better, ricocheting Keaon on the ground and forcing Ilias and Taaffe to keep him off the chalk. This had been the Panthers’ chance though and their subsequent right sweep, for all its elastic momentum, didn’t quite come together at the end, when a near-vertical ball from Salmon mean that Bizza was brought down by Walker. For a second it looked like Cleary’s footy genius might bring it all together with a pitch-perfect kick that would have landed straight in Martin’s lap if Keaon weren’t so determined not to succumb a second time.

Planting himself in the way of his rival second-rower, he reached out a palm to smoothly contain it, in what turned out to be the boost the Bunnies needed to come up with arguably the most spectacular single tackle of the game. Cookie took up the baton with an even better dummy half run than Kenny a set before, offloading through the Penrith hooker for Keaon to half-lose-half-flick it back to Cook to add more metres and sent it on to Walker. Everything clicked into gear now as Walker in turn popped it out to Tass for a sublime sideline sequence.

What followed was a masterclass in footy instinct, timing and inside-outside plays. Tass surged up the chalk, shifting positions so mercurially with Johnston that they seemed to be part of the same rugby league brain. Cruising outside as Alex danced back inside, Tass lofted it back for his winger to bring it away from the sideline, as Cleary dove at his ankle, and Luai attempted to sandwich him to ground on top. Yet the combined effort of the Penrith halves wasn’t enough to stop Johnston getting the offload away to propel Latrell into the spotlight.

Continuing this effervescent dance between inside and outside trajectories, the custodian held the Steeden high enough to elude Cleary and Edwards as Bizza came in below, parlaying this slightly contorted movement into a seamless dummy that gave Tass just enough time to collect it on the chest, boot it from the sideline, take advantage of a Cleary over-read, and then beat Edwards at the death to slam it down without any hint of a bounce – a prodigious enough play to galvanise some late aggro from a Panthers squad who were still eight ahead.

Latrell’s kick hovered to the left early in its curve but eventually slipped by the post, leaving his men with just one more set to level the score, with a little over a minute on the clock. Shaq ploughed four defenders to the twenty on play one, and Murray lobbed it wide out to Johnston, who dummied inside to defy To’o but was brought down by a second Bizza effort just over the forty. Scheming, the Bunnies sent it back to the other wing, where Taaffe couldn’t break through Martin and Yeo, and so they ended, as they always had to, on the left.

A Latrell dummy wasn’t quite enough to get the offload round the corner as Salmon surged in fast and hard and a short ball from Murray couldn’t put Shaq through the line either. All the precarious brilliance of Tass’ try was now distilled into the final tackle of the game, as with five seconds remaining, Ilias lost it backwards under the brunt of a mad Martin charge, Keaon scooped it up and offloaded facing South Sydney’s end with Luai on his back, and Cookie collected it, regrouped, danced across the park and propelled it to Chee Kam for the last play.

Dummying a few times to make room for a drive into the twenty, the ex-Tiger summed up the situation in a microsecond, pivoted off the left boot to escape an impending Cleary hit, and finally dropped it on the right boot as the Penrith halfback came in hard around his waist. Cometh the hour cometh the man, as Edwards beat Johnston to bump him dead – and let him know about it too, an unusual strut from the normally modest fullback that proved just how hard won this contest had become in these final moments, in a tribute to Souths’ resilience.