The Dragons were unable to capitalise on home territory, or win their first Charity Shield double since 2011-2012, on Valentine’s Day evening, as a less experienced South Sydney trial side put up a resilient fight to come away with a four-point win. Donning the cardinal and myrtle jersey tonight was Matt Dufty, in his first NRL appearance since departing the Dogs for Super League at the end of 2022, and his gutsiness against his most iconic former club helped spawn Souths’ golden period before and after the break.

On the other side of the Steeden this was a debut for Dan Atkinson as the Red V’s new halfback, eighteen months after he signed for the club, and he showed some promising signs here, especially during the first stanza, when he assisted Clint Gutherson for the opening try and helped build an almost-try in the right corner off a nice tap-back from Kyle Flanagan, both encouraging signs of his ability to sync with his new spine in the coming weeks. Hopefully, St. George will be the club where he truly comes into his own.

While the Dragons side was largely recognisable from first-grade, the Rabbitohs featured a host of up-and-coming players, notably Bronson Garlick, captaining them from lock, Jonah Glover, who suffered a broken jaw early in the match, and Talanoa Penitani, who scored the first South Sydney try of the night with a run so elastic and athletic that it ended up spraining his hamstring, meaning that he’ll be joining Glover for six weeks on the sideline. Conversely, Junior Tatola was back from a shoulder reconstruction and contributed a full quarter.

The four-point loss was due, in part, to three missed opportunities from the Dragons in the first stanza, starting with a solo Flanagan play five minutes in. Bringing the footy to the ten, Flanno dummied left, put in a big right step to elude Pete Mamouzelos, and came down just shy of the chalk. Dufty was there but wouldn’t have been enough to prevent the St. George five-eighth from nudging the Steeden onto the line if not for Garlick, who slammed in from across the field in a terrific show of defensive leadership.

St. George only had to wait four more minutes for their first four points – and Atkinson’s first stellar involvement of the night. Gutho bookended it with a flick out to his halfback, who sent it on through Jaydn Su’A for NSW Cup winger Setu Tu to pop a two-hander back to Atkinson. Bending back the defence as far as he dared, the ex-Shark brought it deep into the twenty, waiting until the last moment to pass it across for the King to score – a rousing sight for the home crowd at WIN, especially with Flanagan adding the extras.

Yet the impact of this try was somewhat muted by another near-crossover, this time beneath a high kick from Atkinson deep into the right corner. Flanno won the contest in the air, tapping it back to Atkinson, who had not only joined the chase, but delivered a terrific clutch underarm offload to Su’A. Unfortunately, Jaydn’s job was even clutchier, and the second phase that he lobbed out to the wing was forward, meaning that Mat Feagai’s try went begging. Still, this was a promising vision of the future halves syncing.

The Bunnies hadn’t managed to capitalise on the vacuum left in the wake of Flanno’s near crossover but they did better to turn this second disappointment to their advantage. As the second quarter arrived, they executed a superb right sweep, ending with a dazzling fifteen metre run from Penitani, who subliminally showed the footy a few times and played a game of brinksmanship as he drifted further towards the edge, eventually getting outside Moses Suli, crossing with his winger available on his outside.

It takes a lot to get outside Suli, even for an experienced player, so it was quite a sight to see Penitani skipping and dancing so dexterously that he barely needed to plant a left-hand fend into the big centre to withstand the last-ditch ankle tap. Still, the Dragons hit back two minutes later by showing the veterans could go it alone too, as Cook received a nice Leilua offload and set his eyes on the left padding, spinning and twisting through Dufty to plant it down. With every try converted so far, the Red V were ahead 12-6.

Agonisingly, though, not only did the Dragons suffer their third near-try five minutes later, but it made Cook look like an aging veteran, rather than the implacable hooker of his South Sydney days. Again, Gutho and Atkinson linked up beautifully, with the King bursting into space off a deft Su’A offload – a nice comeback after Jaydn’s forward ball for Feagai – and Atkinson continuing the charge. With Cook on his outside, he bulleted the Steeden at chest level, only for the ex-Bunny to cough it up with open space ahead.

Between his individual try and this howler of a mistake lay the promise and liability of the veteran player – and it ushered in the imperial phase of the game for South Sydney. Four minutes before the break, Dufty made up for Cookie spinning through him with a one-man effort of his own. Reaching the ten, he chipped the footy a few metres forward, where Flanagan ricocheted it back for him to rein it in with his right hand, withstand a punishing Gutho tackle at the death, and slam down four at his old home ground.

Dufty was just as good four minutes after the break, when he went from tryscorer to assister at the end of the Bunnies’ best left sweep of the game, by holding up the line just long enough for Latrell Siegwalt to dummy a few times and crash over. Both of the South Sydney centres had now scored without having to resort to their wingers, although with Bentley-Hape missing the conversion the visitors were only four ahead. Nevertheless, the young no. 2 would only have to wait two minutes for more points.

They didn’t come on the wing but right down the middle and marked the nadir of the Dragons’ game. Humphreys set it up with a towering bomb that Tu took cleanly, only to become so disoriented as Tom Fletcher spun him around in the chase that he offloaded it out the back without a St. George player in sight. All Bentley-Hape had to do was scoop it up and trot over to score, before converting his own try to bring the Bunnies to an imposing ten point lead with a little over thirty minutes left until the final siren.

One more South Sydney try here and it would have likely been a landslide win, so it was a big boon for the Dragons when Cook made up for the mistake that had started it all by threading a beautiful grubber straight past Dufty for Leiliua to pop down with Hamish Stewart not far behind. It was a statement of intent, in what was fast becoming a mini-battle of the veterans between Cookie and Dufty, although it didn’t ultimately do much to energise the Red V, who let through the next try off their weakest defence so far.

It came twelve minutes before the end, when a Lynkhan King-Tongia pass split Suli and Sloan on the left edge. Whether they were too tired to pick it up, or didn’t think Souths could intercept, or were expecting it to go dead, they were completely unprepared for Jordi Mazzone to scoop it up and score untouched. For the second time, St. George had gifted the Bunnies a training run try, and if the Cook-Leilua combo had momentarily eclipsed the embarrassment of Tu’s “assist” for Bentley-Hape, this only reiterated it.

That said, the deficit remained at ten after Humphreys converted, but the Dragons only had a single try left in them, even if it was one of their most elegant of the night. Hayden Buchanan was the standout here, beating a couple of defenders on the left and heading back in field, where he pivoted off the right boot to elude Mazzone and continued his dance down the sideline, where he popped it out to, and received it back from, Toby Couchman. With the Bunnies swarming in on this big left play, the Red V shifted right.

It produced their best right sweep of the night, every bit as good as the effort that put Penitani over in the first half, as Sloan stepped up with a superb tap-on for Feagai to beat a few defenders to the corner. The Dragons had stamped their signature on the final moments of the match but there was no doubt that this was an upset, and a testament to the depth of talent the Rabbitohs have in their extended squad. Big pressure on the Red V, then, as they prepare to take on the Dogs under Vegas lights.