Rabbitohs claim miracle win

Updated July 17, 2012 08:30:52

Miracles don't come much sweeter than this for South Sydney with two tries in the final two minutes reversing their round one nightmare as they somehow beat bitter rivals Sydney Roosters 24-22 on Monday night.

Just as the Roosters did to them in the season-opener, the Rabbitohs came back from dead to snatch a win - the match-winner a 100 metre effort from a kick-off taken with just 45 seconds left on the clock.

After Nathan Merritt had scored his second to cut the Roosters' lead to 22-18 with a minute left on the clock, Dave Taylor took the restart and sent Chris McQueen racing off downfield, the ball passing through Merritt and Issac Luke before eventually finding Adam Reynolds to dive over, his conversion proving the difference.

The stunned Roosters could not even bring themselves to stay on the field to claim the Ron Coote Cup they claimed as aggregate winners in this year's clashes between the two teams, the win lifting the Rabbitohs into the top four and leaving the Roosters five points out of the top eight.

"It was a bit of a nightmare," said Roosters skipper Braith Anasta, who was celebrating his 250th game.

"I just couldn't believe it had happened. It was just total shock.

"I will never forget that one, it's a 250th to remember."

Souths coach Michael Maguire admitted he reminded his players of the round one result in the dying stages.

"We learnt the hard way in round one," he said.

"The message went out from our trainers, we've had it done to ourselves so lets go out and play a bit of footy."

For Reynolds, the finish added to a rookie resume of match-winning plays.

"You definitely dream of it as a kid," Reynolds said.

"You always want to score the winning try and you watch your heroes when you're a little boy and when they score a try you want to be like them."

The Roosters were seemingly gone when Mitchell Pearce scored with five minutes to go to give the Roosters a 22-12 lead, and even when Merritt scored his second of the night with two minutes to go, victory seemed impossible for the Rabbitohs.

But this is a Bunnies side on a mission, now two points out of top spot and with a friendly run into the finals.

The Roosters had shown tremendous courage to recover from a 12-4 halftime deficit to score 18 straight points in the second period - and even an unbelievable no-try ruling against BJ Leilua by video referee Russell Smith looked like it was going to matter.

Leilua scored six minutes later to give the Roosters the lead before Pearce extended it beyond a converted try, but it was all to no avail as the Rabbitohs came home late.

The only downside for the Rabbitohs was Luke being put on report for a dangerous throw on Shaun Kenny-Dowall which could land him in some trouble with the match review committee.

The Roosters issued a media release after the match apologising for not being on the field to accept the Ron Coote Cup, saying they had apologised to the Coote family and blaming their absence on "disbelief" after the thrilling finish to the match.

Rabbitohs: 24 (N Merritt 2, A Everingham, A Reynolds tries; A Reynolds 4/4 cons)

Roosters: 22 (B Cordner, T Moga, J Leilua, M Pearce tries; B Anasta 3/4 cons)

AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-league, nrl, sydney-south-2000, sydney-2000

First posted July 16, 2012 21:14:54

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Melbourne miracle leaves Sharks stunned

Raman Goraya

Updated August 28, 2012 07:27:58

The Storm scored two tries in the final two minutes to claim an astonishing 20-18 victory over Cronulla in Melbourne on Monday night.

Melbourne committed an uncharacteristic 17 handling errors and were second best to the gritty Sharks all evening before delivering the type of late magic that will keeps its premiership rivals on edge.

Down 18-10 with two minutes to play, Ryan Hoffman stretched out to score his second try of the night and put the Storm within striking distance of a somewhat undeserved triumph.

The hosts then charged down the field off the restart thanks to some brilliant interplay between Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk, before quick thinking by Sisa Waqa out of dummy half set up Will Chambers on the blind side for the match-winning try in the corner.

"You never think it is over. Obviously the time was running out, but there was still about five minutes on the clock. We knew we had a chance to score two tries," Slater told Fox Sports.

"You give yourself a chance. You get down this end of the field and, it's not going to happen all the time, but tonight we dug deep and got there."

Storm coach Craig Bellamy and captain Cameron Smith admitted Cronulla were the better side on the night but credited their side's resolve.

"We were very lucky to get away with that one," Smith said.

"The Sharkies are a great side and they just kept coming.

"At the time a lot of people thought the game was wrapped up.

"But it's a very good sign - the fighting spirit in this side to come back from that and to win on the bell.

"I said to the boys, 'there is a lot of things we need to work on this week'.

"But there is a lot of confidence we can take out of that game.

"It takes a special team to come back from where we were tonight."

The win means second-placed Melbourne, now on 36 points, can still win the minor premiership if it defeats the Tigers and the Bulldogs lose to the Roosters in next weekend's final round.

Melbourne looked anything like competition leaders with a completion rate of just 55 per cent when trailing 6-4 at half-time, compared to Cronulla's 74 per cent.

That stat only improved to 61 per cent for the Storm by full-time.

Smith said Melbourne was its own worst enemies in the first half with 10 knock ons.

"We didn't do ourselves any favours tonight," he said.

"Our ball control was terrible.

"It was just simple drop ball, simple passes on the ground that first graders shouldn't be doing."

While the no-nonsense Sharks were also guilty of seven first-half mistakes, they started strong in the second half and tries to Nathan Stapleton and Isacc Gordon had them in control with 15 minutes left before a late collapse.

"We have to learn to play for 80 minutes, simple as that," skipper Paul Gallen said after notching up 27 hit-ups for 232 metres.

"It is disappointing but it is probably going to be a lesson for us going into the semi-finals.

"We know we are a good side when we play our game.

"We will take a lot of confidence out of it. Melbourne as one of the best sides in the competition and we more than matched them the whole game."

The Sharks can slip to as far as seventh if they lose to North Queensland on Sunday afternoon and Canberra defeats the Warriors.

Storm: 20 (R Hoffman 2, S Waqa, W Chambers tries; C Smith 2/4 cons)

Sharks: 18 (S Tagataese, N Stapleton, I Gordon tries; T Carney 2/3 cons, 1/1 pen)

Tags: nrl, rugby-league, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia, cronulla-2230, nsw

First posted August 27, 2012 21:02:43

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