Reynolds: Don’t count Rabbitohs out of three-way NRL premiership race just yet

The Rabbitohs are still right in the mix for an NRL premiership this year, Broncos-bound bunny Adam Reynolds claims, despite Panthers or Storm shaping as likely 2021 victors on paper.

There’s no doubting the Rabbitohs attack.

When it’s firing, sparked by Cody Walker, Adam Reynolds, Latrell Mitchell, and Damian Cook, it’s a sight to behold. Already this year, Wayne Bennett’s men have racked up a monster 701 points, just 76 short of the seemingly unstoppable Storm.

The question marks floating around the cardinal red and myrtle green, however, have been on the other end of the footy field; their lacklustre rearguard actions.

Melbourne and Penrith have conceded just 278 and 264 points apiece. It’s a far cry from the third-placed team, Souths, who have coughed up 425 in 22 rounds. That puts them far closer to the rest of the eight, including the Roosters (419), Sea Eagles (456), and Eels (407) than it does to their premiership rivals.

On the weekend, the Rabbitohs focused on one thing as they came up against the slick black outfit of the Penrith Panthers ⁠— shoring up that defence.

They conceded 25 points, but just four tries, and one was even “soft.”

It’s the shot in the arm the Rabbitohs needed. They’ve been sliced up for 50 this season already, so to keep the Nathan Cleary-led Panthers to just a smidge over two dozen points is a big victory in Adam Reynolds’ books.

The showing, though a loss, has led to Reynolds making a bold call ahead of the NRL’s penultimate round: don’t count the Bunnies out of the race too early.

He says: “We know we can match the top two.”

In fact, Reynolds claims the score lines they’ve copped against the Panthers and Storm, which range from an eight-point loss to Melbourne in Round 1, to a 50–0 massacre eight weeks later, “don’t reflect” how close the Bunnies really are.

“There were moments in those games, in the Panthers game last week, where we were well and truly on top of them. It’s about taking that, and doing it consistently.”

Just last week, the Rabbitohs fell foul to Penrith again, 25-12.

At stages in the Round 23 clash, the Rabbitohs were in the ascendancy. Dane Gagai opened the scoring, and Latrell Mitchell scored 12 minutes later to stretch Souths’ lead out to 12. It was only a resurgence ⁠— sparked by Cleary’s 30th-minute try ⁠— that let the Panthers back into the high-table contest.

Souths kick off the try scoring 😤#NRLPanthersSouths #TelstraPremiership pic.twitter.com/yNjkfc2Y5a

— NRL (@NRL) August 20, 2021

“Our structures, our performance [last weekend], they were much better.”

Reynolds continued: “They had 32 minutes in our half in the second half there, and we only let in two tries, including a pretty soft one at the end. That’s good.”

It answers the question, at least for Reynolds, about how Souths can stay in the title fight ⁠— the Rabbitohs have always had attack. Now they’ve shown defence too.

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“They’re up there with the best teams in the competition attacking-wise, and if there were any question marks over us and our defence before that,” the Bunnies playmaker said, “and I thought we pretty much stood up to that. 

“There’s areas where we can be better, and we know that we can be even better than we were on the weekend, and that’s the positive signs to come out of the game.

“We walked away more confident than we were this time last year.”

Before they can prove that in finals, though, an old enemy awaits.

For the second time this season, this time north of the New South Wales state line, Roosters meet Rabbitohs in the oldest rivalry in the modern game. South Sydney lead in the standings, and boasts the 1–0 lead this year.

Last time the two teams met in 2021, the Rabbitohs emerged 26–16 victors off the back of an explosive evening from Reynolds’ halves partner Cody Walker.

The Bunnies currently lead their inner-city Sydney rivals by six points, though Easts have been ravaged by injuries for much of their campaign. It will be the last time Reynolds plays the Roosters in cardinal red and myrtle green, and he’s looking forward to what he sees as “another great game” in the long rivalry.

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“It’s always a good game, no matter what,” he said.

“Obviously there’s history there, us and the Roosters, so the ladder doesn’t really matter. Then, for us, it’s another opportunity to go play our brand of football too. We have to really focus on nailing down our last-bit preparation for finals.

“We’re preparing the way we do every week, focusing on ourselves. We have to get our game right, especially for finals… when we do that, we’re pretty hard to stop.”

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