South Sydney down Kalyn Ponga-led Knights 36-18 in back and forth clash
JUST two days after the death of his mother, Cody Walker has led the way for South Sydney in an emotional 36-18 win over Newcastle.
Rabbitohs
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rabbitohs. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IT was an emotional win for South Sydney in a tough week.
Just two days after five-eighth Cody Walker learnt of his mother’s death from a heart attack, the five-eighth took to the field to help lead his side to a clinical 36-18 win over Newcastle.
Walker was dedicating his performance to his late mother Linda Stewart, who was affectionately known as Lou, and he and his team certainly did her proud.
FAVOURITE SON: King Gutho is Parra’s No. 1 inspiration
CULT HERO: Mahe has more to offer than a cracking mullet
BLAST: Bennett spray that saved George Burgess
South Sydney had given Walker the option to play but he wanted to honour his mother, and did just that with his family and friends watching from the stands.
“To play for mum is something pretty special and something I’ll hold dear for the rest of my life,” Walker said.
“I’ve got a person with me for the rest of my life. I think she will always be watching over me.”
The Rabbitohs shot out of the gate, putting on 12 quick points by the fifth minute, and they had Walker to thank as he crossed for one and had a hand in the first.
His coach Anthony Seibold described it as a brave effort.
“Really challenging last 48 hours for Cody and his family. We wore black armbands as a sign of respect for his mum and the rest of his family,” Seibold said.
“A really brave effort. He didn’t get in until late last night. We’re really proud of him.”
Captain Greg Inglis said he’d spoken to Walker about playing when he arrived in camp and felt him taking the field had helped him during in a hard period.
“It’s obviously a distraction for him going through this tough time coming in here and representing his family very well, Inglis said.
“We had a chat to him last night and he wanted to play and he wanted to do his mum proud and I’m pretty sure his mum is smiling down on him at the moment.”
The scoreline didn’t quite reflect the match. It was a patient performance from South Sydney, a patience that delivered as they took quick control after the break.
Souths had gone into halftime behind in the metre battle (735-681) and had seen just 44 per cent of possession despite having had 60 of it after 10 minutes.
By the final whistle that had swung back in their favour to have hit the 1521-metre mark (255 more than Newcastle) with 53 per cent possession.
The start to the second 40 was almost foretelling of how the remainder would play out after Newcastle winger Ken Sio botched a certain try just two minutes in.
Sio took a brilliant long ball from fullback Kalyn Ponga — who was once again in fine touch — but dropped it as Angus Crichton hit him over the tryline. Souths then went the length of the field on the next set and a kick to Sio’s corner delivered them the four points instead.
From there South Sydney put on two more tries — Damien Cook flashing his Origin credentials with a 25-metre dash from dummy-half to cross next to the posts and seal the game, then Greg Inglis added the icing with five minutes to play.
With his team holding a narrow four-point lead at the break, Seibold had put it to his team to amp up their defence and shut down the Knights’ ball movement on the last. They delivered.
“Some pretty simple areas to improve but the main take was to continue to build consecutive sets,” he said.
“I challenged the guys to be ruthless with that and we needed to be a bit more ruthless, a bit more clinical and we were in the second half, that was really pleasing.”
SOUTH SYDNEY 36 (D Cook D Gagai C Graham G Inglis R Jennings C Walker tries A Reynolds 6 goals) bt NEWCASTLE 18 (S Kenny-Dowall 2 L Fitzgibbon S Mata’utia tries K Sio goal) at McDonald Jones Stadium. Referee: Gavin Badger, Matt Noyen. Crowd: 22,718