South Sydney lose host of players including Greg Inglis in Saturday’s win over New Zealand
GREG Inglis looks set to miss Origin II after suffering an ankle injury as a wounded South Sydney side embarrassed the Warriors.
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QUEENSLAND’s eight-year State of Origin run has suffered a body blow with star centre Greg Inglis almost certain to miss next Wednesday week’s return bout against the Blues with a serious ankle injury.
Inglis suffered suspected syndesmosis of the ankle.
Inglis’s injury took the gloss off a courageous come-from-behind win by the Bunnies over the Warriors in Perth.
Inglis flew back to Sydney with his team-mates late Saturday night and will have scans on the injury on Sunday after limping off just before halftime.
Souths produced a superb late fightback, scoring 28 points in the final 23 minutes to swamp the tiring Warriors.
With the game kicking off at nearly midnight Auckland time, there were real fears that the Warriors would not have their games faces on.
But it was the Kiwi team who came out with guns blazing, charging to a 10-0 lead inside eight minutes.
And they did it in fine style, stunning Souths with two superb early tries.
Rookie winger David Fusitua got the Warriors rolling with an effort that will take plenty of beating for the solo try of the year.
Fusitua took a pass from centre Konrad Hurrell and hurdled the cover defence of Souths skipper John Sutton as he charged for the corner.
Fusitua jumped high in the air, his entire body over the sideline, but managed to keep his ball-carrying arm in play to touch down.
Soon afterwards, Warriors prop Suaia Matagi charged through the heart of the Souths defence and put halfback Shaun Johnson over for a shock 10-0 to the rank outsiders.
Souths should have bridged the gap in the 15th minute, but Sutton lost control of the ball as he attempted to scamper over.
The Rabbitohs finally got on the board after sustained pressure in the 24th minute, with Sutton putting boom centre Dylan Walker over with a clever short pass.
The game threatened to explode late in the half when Warriors forward Sebastine Ikahihfio hit George Burgess and Adam Reynolds with high shots in quick succession.
The first saw Sam Burgess give Ifahihfio an angry spray for dazing his little brother and the second resulted in him being placed on report.
The Rabbitohs almost hit the front just before the break when the on-field officials ruled Bryson Goodwin had scored from a bomb - only to be proved wrong by the video referee.
The tragedy struck for Souths on the stroke of halftime when Inglis attempted to make a tackle on giant Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei.
Both Vatuvei and Inglis’ Souths team-mate Sam Burgess came down on Inglis’ knee and the star fullback ended up writhing on the turf in agony.
To add to Souths’ woes, Goodwin went off with a painful elbow injury early in the second half.
The Warriors looked set for a win when skipper Simon Mannering scored to extend the lead to 14-6 early in the second half.
But boom Rabbitohs centre Dylan Walker turned the game with a superb solo run midway through the second half and the Rabbitohs added two late tries to finish convincing winners.
SOUTH SYDNEY 34 (D Tyrrell 2 D Walker 2 J Reddy K Turner tries A Reynolds 5 goals) bt WARRIORS 18 (D Fusitua K Hurrell S Johnson S Mannering tries S Johnson goal) at nib Stadium. Referee: Jared Maxwell, David Munro. Crowd: 20,267.
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Originally published as South Sydney lose host of players including Greg Inglis in Saturday’s win over New Zealand
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