NRL 2021: South Sydney Rabbitohs win 36-6 over Gold Coast Titans | Match Report
He’s closing in on a 16-year try-assist record and has hit the half-century in line-break assists. It’s safe to say Cody Walker is in the form of his life. Now for a season-defining match against Penrith.
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Rabbitohs star Cody Walker has sent the Titans crashing back to earth as South Sydney smashed 113-year-old records and handed the Gold Coast an NRL premiership reality check in a 36-6 cakewalk.
Walker took another step towards clinching a maiden Dally M Medal with a dominant performance as the Rabbitohs romped to their 10th straight victory at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday.
The 30-point win ensured Souths became the first team in premiership history to score 30 points in eight consecutive games.
The Rabbitohs are a genuine threat to Melbourne and Penrith in this year’s premiership race and will face the Panthers in a blockbuster finals prelude on Friday night.
With their top eight hopes on the line, the Titans were beaten to the punch from the outset and held scoreless for 65 minutes in a disappointing performance.
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SOUTHS HEADING NORTH
The Rabbitohs are going on a record-breaking rampage in the run to the finals.
With coach Wayne Bennett at the helm in his final season, Souths eclipsed Manly’s 1983 premiership record by racking up another 30-plus score against the hapless Titans.
Their tally of 688 points this season is the most Souths has scored in any season since 1908, eclipsing the 687 scored in their 2014 premiership-winning campaign.
Next round’s mouth-watering clash against Penrith will provide a genuine test of how good this Souths side is.
Can they win the competition?
It remains to be seen but a team with Latrell Mitchell, Adam Reynolds, Damien Cook and Walker will be tough to beat on the big stage.
Their big guns were supported superbly by forwards Jai Arrow, Tevita Tatola, and Keaon Koloamatangi.
“We’ve had to change the way we play a little bit and we’ve done that. It’s been a three-year project and we’re seeing the benefits of it,” Bennett said.
“We’re doing everything right at the moment. We’re blessed with a pretty healthy squad and in the top four.
“That (making grand final) remains to be seen.”
WALKER’S ON FIRE
Walker has taken his game to another level this year and is on track to have the most dominant season by a playmaker in NRL history.
The Rabbitohs five-eighth registered another three try-assists, taking his season tally to 34 and within striking distance of the NRL record (since 1998).
That belongs to Tim Smith, who recorded 40 try-assists for Parramatta in 2005. Cooper Cronk (38) and Benji Marshall (37) had strong seasons in 2012.
Walker is the NRL’s form playmaker and could be the difference when the finals roll around if he stays in this sort of touch.
He has recorded 51 line-break assists and is South Sydney’s danger man, orchestrating a 24-0 halftime lead which the Rabbitohs held on to.
“Wayne is a pretty simple type of coach, he just says ‘go out and be Cody Walker and get the footy in your hands’,” Walker said.
“My little mate (Reynolds) does everything so great and gives me the time. He allows me to get on my player which is so hard to stop.
“I’m going to miss him when he goes (to Brisbane) but we’ve got some time to go before he does leave.
“We’ve got plenty of time to create something special.”
FIFITA’S TITANS BUMBLE
Titans coach Justin Holbrook is running the gauntlet by starting games with his most damaging player in David Fifita on the bench and it backfired this time.
The tactic worked in the past three weeks when the Titans racked up wins against the struggling Dragons, Bulldogs and Cowboys.
But they were down 12-0 to the Rabbitohs and had to play catch-up football before Fifita entered the game.
Regardless, the Titans never looked up for the contest and have still not beaten a top six team this year.
“I don’t think that would have really mattered today,” Holbrook said of Fifita starting on the field.
“It was tough and disappointing. We never looked likely. They played way better than us.
“I guess (it is a reality check). I can’t say any different when we get beaten like that.
“All in all we were beaten by a far better side than us.”
The Titans are walking a finals tightrope and need at least two wins from their final three games to guarantee a play-offs berth.
That won’t be easy with fixtures against the Storm (1st), Knights (9th) and Warriors (12th) to come, but it will be a failure if they don’t qualify.
QUEENSLANDERS UNITE: NRL BATTLERS BECOME STATE’S ONLY HOPE
The Gold Coast Titans have gone from being Queensland’s battlers to the Sunshine State’s great NRL finals hope — and they’re ready for you to jump on the bandwagon.
The Titans will head into Saturday’s clash against South Sydney at Cbus Super Stadium knowing a win will go close to guaranteeing them a drought-breaking play-offs appearance.
They are the only Queensland club still in the mix for finals as the Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys face back-to-back bottom four finishes.
The Titans have only played one finals game (2016) in the past decade and long played third-fiddle to the Broncos and Cowboys.
They were preliminary finalists in 2010 but followed that up with a wooden spoon in 2011 and another in 2019.
The Titans have been making up the numbers in the NRL for much of their existence but they have been Queensland’s No. 1 club for the past two seasons, finishing ninth in 2020.
With four games to play and a mostly favourable draw, optimism is high on the Gold Coast that the seventh-placed Titans will finish the regular season in the top eight.
They boast a team full of Queensland Origin stars in David Fifita, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, AJ Brimson and Moeaki Fotuaika.
The club is clearly moving forward under coach Justin Holbrook and he said extra support for the Titans from Queensland fans would be welcomed in their run to September.
“That would be terrific to get extra support, we will take it,” he said.
“There’s a lot of fans that have moved up from Sydney that already follow their teams so we won’t expect any extra home ground advantage.
“But anyone that is a Queenslander and wants to jump on the back of us in our run to try and get into the finals, we will take.
“We know the opportunity is there (to play finals). We’ve done well to get ourselves in the mix, but there’s a lot of big games over the next four weeks for us to get there.
“Early in the year we had some good wins and I felt we probably let that affect us going into the next game.
“The last five weeks we’ve really understood that we need to get the wins, put them behind us and move on.
“We’re looking forward to playing and the playing group is pretty grounded.”
The Titans are on a three-match winning streak but have two tough games coming up against the Rabbitohs (3rd) and Melbourne Storm (1st), both at home on the Gold Coast.
If they can jag a win in either of those matches then they will be in a prime position heading into clashes against Newcastle (9th) and New Zealand (12th) in the last two rounds.
The Titans haven’t beaten a top six team this season and Holbrook said a strong performance against the Rabbitohs would give his team more credibility.
“It would mean we’re closer to making the finals and that’s what’s most important,” he said.
“We know how good Souths are. They are a terrific side and up in the top three for a reason. If we want to play finals we’ve got to try and knock some of these big sides off.
“We’ve got a good opportunity and if we play well I think we can do that. We need to step it up.
“We’ve been a lot clearer with how we want to play in attack and defence. We’ve always attacked well but the way we’re understanding each other’s game, we’ve got a bit of stability in positions now and trust in our defence.
“We’re stepping up against South Sydney, we’re well aware of that. We’ve got to keep improving. We know where we sit on the ladder and have got to do our best to keep the wins coming.”
Fifita scored a first half hat-trick against the Rabbitohs in Round 7 but a second stanza fade out cost the Titans victory as Souths ran away 40-30 victors.
The most damaging forward in the game will start on the bench for the fourth straight week and Holbrook hopes Fifita can add to his 14-try tally.
“I’ve been happy with how the last few weeks have worked in that area so we’ll leave it as is,” he said.
“He’s been terrific since that Canberra game and we’ve needed it. He’s a big part of our team and is playing great.
“We’re absolutely going to need that again.”
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