South Sydney are back inside the NRL top eight after overcoming a sluggish first half to edge past St George Illawarra 26-14 in Cairns.
Two classy try assists in a clinical display from star fullback Latrell Mitchell and another double for prolific winger Alex Johnston helped the Rabbitohs claim a much-needed win.
It didn’t come without a scare, the Dragons getting to within six points with 15 minutes to play after halfback Ben Hunt created a try for fullback Tyrell Sloan out of nothing.
Johnston ran away to seal the points soon after for the Rabbitohs.
It was the result the Rabbitohs needed but not quite the performance they would have been hoping for after failing to put away a Dragons side with nothing left to play for this season.
They leapfrog North Queensland and Newcastle into seventh place on the ladder ahead of the Knights’ clash with Canterbury on Sunday and still could claw their way into the top four.
But they didn’t look like a premiership contender in a dire first half against the Dragons littered with errors, only hitting the sheds ahead 8-4 having butchered a number of chances to extend that advantage.
Mitchell produced a magic ball to create the opening try for Johnston, while his special catch and quick flick pass for Cody Walker to score in the second half put them ahead 20-10.
Outside of their Mitchell’s clever moments, the Rabbitohs looked uninspired and were repeatedly turned away in attack, outside of a woeful St George defensive effort that allowed centre Campbell Graham to stroll over off the back of a scrum play.
Hunt, who scored in the second half from a clever Talatau Amone kick, produced his own special grubberkick for Sloan to pull the score back to 20-14 with 15 minutes to play, before Johnston crossed to give his side breathing room.
The Rabbitohs were shocking in their ball security and made 15 errors to turn in a poor set completion rate of 64 per cent and easily could have been punished if the Dragons hadn’t made 11 errors of their own.
AAP
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