Marty Taupau bags a double as Wests Tigers dominate South Sydney Rabbitohs

THE Tigers have flat out belted the Rabbitohs, with big man Marty Taupau a one-man wrecking ball in a six tries to one demolition of the reigning premiers.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 12: Martin Taupau of the Tigers celebrates scoring a try during the round 14 NRL match between the Wests Tigers and the South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium on June 12, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

UPDATE: JASON Taylor doesn’t make excuses for the Wests Tigers’ performances over the past month.

But after watching his team humiliate the reigning premiers 34-6 on Friday night in one of the upsets of the season, Taylor revealed that learning how to play tough was the challenge he set the Tigers this year.

Forget about playing to entertain, Taylor said the only way to stand alongside the contenders in this NRL competition is to take them on at their own game.

Which is how the Tigers built Friday night’s comprehensive six-tries-to-one victory over the Rabbitohs.

Even without their inspirational Origin stars Robbie Farah and Aaron Woods, the Tigers dominated the Rabbitohs through the middle with human wrecking ball Martin Taupau leading the way with a mighty two-try man of the match performance.

On a night when the lightning rod that is James Tedesco also crossed for a double and Luke Brooks played his best game of the season with a slashing 50 metre solo try, it was the Tigers’ dominance in the middle that laid the platform against the pack that was supposed to expose their weakness.

WHERE TO NOW FOR THE BUNNIES?

“We talked a fair bit about defence and the style we are trying to play,” Taylor said.

“It is a tougher style and you have got to work harder and that is what this game is.

“The opposition we played tonight, they won last season’s premiership on playing a tough style of footy.

“You have got to be able to match that with a team like that if you want to be up there at the end of the season.

“For us, we can pretend we want to be there a few years down the track and play a different style.

“Or we can knuckle down right now and work hard to play that style which we did tonight.

“Which we have been doing.

“It probably dulled our attack a little bit over the last few weeks, particularly against the Cowboys, but our defence in that game was really good. For three weeks running now we have been good in defence.

“It is a big challenge for us but maintaining that is where we are at.”

But Friday night’s effort sure was a good start.

Built on energy, aggression and the type of intensity that Taylor was adamant had been building over the last month, the young Tigers were up 12-0 before the Rabbitohs even realised the match had started with tries to Tedesco and Taupau while they bombed another.

But from there, they traded set for set with the Rabbitohs until finally the points came at the back end of the game.

And what about the effort from Taupau.

James Tedesco scores late against the Rabbitohs.

For his first try he cut through off a pass from Brooks before he handed Alex Johnston a big don’t argue like he was swatting a fly.

Then in the second half he did it again, this time upending Adam Reynolds among others as he made a statement that that he knows he will have to back up in the coming weeks.

“Mate, it is just having a dig,” Taupau said. “Just got to lead the way for the forwards and lay the foundation for the club. We will build on the back of that win.”

Asked about Taupau’s performance, Taylor smiled: “I wouldn’t be too keen to tackle Marty but Marty has really stepped up for us in the last couple of weeks.”

And last night, so did Brooks, and Tedesco. For his try, Brooks left Reynolds stranded and even outsprinted the super quick Johnston.

While for Taylor, Tedesco’s effort’s all season have not been lost on the coach.

“He has been an absolute shining light for us, “Taylor said.

“He is so hard to tackle. I didn’t realise the skill that he had before I came to the club.

“I always knew that he had speed but I didn’t realise he had the skill that he has.

“They are really special those players who have the speed and can pass and kick and he has shown a lot of that in really great fashion over the season so far but tonight was probably a highlight.

Despite all the questions we have been asking about them over recent weeks, last night they showed that if they can find the energy in defence to match their brilliance in attack, then they have the

fire-power to keep pace with the best in this competition.

“I have been confident that this was going to come but at the same time it has taken longer than we’d hoped,” Taylor said.

Marty Taupau sends Alex Johnston flying.

“But it is a credit to the guys the way they stuck at it.

“I think the guys got to the point tonight that they had just had enough.

“We were close in the last couple of weeks but we had just had enough.

“The energy in warm up was different. There was just another level of intensity and we realise that is where we need to get to.

“And tonight was as good as test as we will get and we handled it really well and we won that battle which is a great step for us.”

WESTS TIGERS 34 (M Taupau 2 J Tedesco 2 L Brooks D Nofoaluma tries P Richards 5 goals) bt SOUTH SYDNEY 6 (B Goodwin try A Reynolds goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Grant Atkins. Crowd: 15,118.

Originally published as Marty Taupau bags a double as Wests Tigers dominate South Sydney Rabbitohs