NRL Finals Preview: Sharks, Rabbitohs face off at Allianz for shot at preliminary final

The Cronulla Sharks will host the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Allianz Stadium this Saturday night with the winner advancing to a preliminary final against minor premiers Penrith at Accor Stadium next Saturday.

The two have met just once this season with a Nicho Hynes field goal proving the difference as the Sharks collected a 21-20 golden-point win at PointsBet Stadium in Round 20.

Despite making an absurd 19 errors and finishing behind in run metre, line break, tackle break and offload totals, the Sharks managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to spark the start of a six-match unbeaten streak.

Siosifa Talakai proved a handful for much of the night running for a game-high 231 metres with a line break whilst Cameron McInnes went nearly the full-distance in the middle finishing with 150 metres from 21 carries and 55 tackles. South Sydney’s middles pretty well outplayed their counterparts with four of them – Thomas Burgess, Tevita Tatola, Siliva Havili and Cameron Murray – all running for more than 150 metres.

Sharks head coach Craig Fitzgibbon has named the same 17 that endured a 93-minute loss to the Cowboys last weekend with Dale Finucane receiving only a fine for a crusher tackle on Kyle Feldt.

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The Rabbits, meanwhile, will be without Burgess with the veteran Englishman copping a two-week ban for a pair of high shots in the first half of their win over the Roosters on Sunday. Michael Chee Kam replaces him on the bench.

Both sides have been rather evenly matched in recent times split their past eight meetings with one another. This will be their first meeting at the refurbished Allianz Stadium and the first time they have met twice in the same season since 2015.

Their only finals clash came in 2015 with Cronulla running out 28-12 qualifying final winners at the SFS.

Cronulla’s loss last week snapped a six-game winning streak whilst the Rabbits have won four of their past six following their big win over the Roosters.

Souths finished two spots higher than the Sharks on the regular season yardage leaderboard whilst both sides finished in the bottom three for completion rates so expect a dogfight through the middle before both shots are fired through extravagant shifts out towards their potent backlines.

Latrell Mitchell has been super for the Bunnies since returning midyear from a hamstring issue having notched five tries, 13 try assists, and 64 tackle breaks over his past 10 games.

Hynes, meanwhile, has proven a revelation for Cronulla and was close to the best on ground in their last-start loss to North Queensland finishing the game with three try assists and 751 kick metres.

Both coaches gave an idea last weekend as to how they may navigate their interchange rotation.

Fitzgibbon uses his six middles in two different capacities; his impact middles – Braden Hamlin-Uele, Royce Hunt, and Andrew Fifita – are relied on for short, powerful, and generally one-off stints whilst his workhorse middles – McInnes, Dale Finucane, and Toby Rudolf – play longer minutes in multiple stints and are tasked with closing out the game. Skipper Wade Graham also spent a majority of the game in the middle of the field after starting on the left edge. Briton Nikora is entrusted with playing out the full 80 minutes whilst Teig Wilton came on midway through the first-half and played the game out. Rudolf and Finucane were both replaced by Hunt and Graham in golden-point on Saturday night as Fitzgibbon endeavoured to keep his middle as fresh as possible.

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South Sydney head coach Jason Demetriou was thrown several curveballs with sin-bins and HIAs dominating their win over the Roosters on Sunday. You can count on several aspects of their rotation, however; edge partners Keaon Koloamatangi and Jai Arrow will be entrusted to go the full-distance whilst lock Cameron Murray will not be far behind them. With Burgess’ 45 average minutes now up for grabs, Tevita Tatola, Mark Nicholls, Hame Sele, Siliva Havili and Michael Chee Kam are the names who will be leant on further. Tatola’s minutes have steadily increased throughout the season – expect him to play close to three quarters of the match. Nicholls’ minutes, meanwhile, have remained steady around the mid-30s whilst Sele has only played over 40 minutes twice this season. Havili has proven a more suited, big-minute contributor in the middle than Nicholls or Sele despite his totals dropping in recent weeks from his midyear peak. Chee Kam, meanwhile, has played little first-grade this season but offers a nice amount of versatility which may prove invaluable depending on the state of the game.

Despite Burgess’ absence and the fact that they finished five spots below Cronulla on the ladder, South Sydney enter the $1.81 favourites with bookmakers forecasting a Grand Final rematch next week at Accor.

ODDS

• Sharks – $2.00
• Rabbitohs – $1.82

Kick-off: 8:00pm Saturday at Allianz Stadium, Moore Park

Sharks: 1. Kennedy; 2. Tracey; 3. Ramien; 4. Talakai; 5. Mulitalo; 6. Moylan; 7. Hynes; 8. Rudolf; 9. Brailey; 10. Hunt; 11. Nikora; 12. Graham (c); 13. Finucane; 14. Wilton; 15. McInnes; 16. Hamlin-Uele; 17. Fifita; 18. Miller; 19. Tolman; 20. Trindall; 21. Colquhoun; 22. Hiroti

Rabbitohs: 1. Mitchell; 2. Johnston; 3. Tass; 4. Graham; 5. Milne; 6. Walker; 7. Ilias; 8. Tatola; 9. Cook; 10. Nicholls; 11. Koloamatangi; 12. Arrow; 13. Murray (c); 14. Nikorima; 15. Sele; 16. Chee Kam; 17. Havili; 18. Moale; 19. Taaffe; 20. Paulo; 21. Kennar; 22. Mamouzelos

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