Wests Tigers keep their finals hopes alive with 22-6 win over South Sydney
THE Wests Tigers finals hopes are well and truly alive after they ended South Sydney’s nine-match winning streak with a 22-6 boilover.
Tigers
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tigers. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Tigers are well and truly alive in this competition after shocking the top placed South Sydney with a 22-6 win but their victory was marred by a serious head knock to Robbie Farah.
With back to back scalps against premiership heavyweights St George Illawarra and now the Rabbitohs, the Tigers are well positioned to push for a finals spot — sitting four points behind eighth placed Brisbane.
The Tigers have winnable matches in the next few weeks when they play Canterbury, Newcastle and Canberra — all teams out of finals contention.
BUNKER: Refs didn’t see flag go up
REFORM: How Hayne turned it around
The mid-season arrivals of Farah and Moses Mbye have given the Tigers the boost they needed while Esan Masters starred out-wide in front of 25,963 people at ANZ Stadium.
But there were concerns for Farah after he suffered a heavy headknock trying to make a tackle on George Burgess inside the final 10 minutes with the game stopped for a handful of minutes as Farah was taken from the field on a medicab.
“I remember bits of it early on in the first half, but I’ll probably have to watch the game back,’’ Farah said afterwards.
“It was a good tough win against the best team in the competition, and to back up our performance against the Dragons with another win tonight, against two of the biggest scalps in the competition, hopefully we get on a roll.
“It’s a milestone I never thought I’d achieve at this club.”
Farah was later shown smiling in the dressing room with Tigers coach Ivan Cleary declaring Farah was “all right”.
“He is playing really well,” Cleary said. “No doubt about that. He has added a lot to our team. He has given the players around him a bit of confidence. We’re functioning better as a unit.
“They’ve added class and experience and both talkers in key positions. It’s going to make your team a bit better.”
This came after Farah — in his 250th game for the Tigers — had an early battle with Sam Burgess after the Rabbitohs captain took aim at Farah for staying down following a high tackle.
It prompted a Rabbitohs player to label Farah a “weak ….” with Burgess asking if Farah should have been taken off for a head injury assessment.
The Rabbitohs enforcer was placed on report before pleading with the referees “It’s a physical tackle, can’t we be physical?” Burgess had a running battle with referee Matt Cecchin for a bulk of the game.
The Tigers finished the game with just one player on the interchange bench with Farah, David Nofoaluma and Luke Garner out because of concussion.
The Tigers raced to a 10-0 halftime with Marsters scoring a try and laying on one for Nofoaluma with some footwork before delivering a late flick pass to his winger.
The Rabbitohs were held to their lowest points total this season, with a Cody Walker try inside the final 10 minutes the only blemish for the Tigers.
“It was a really good 80 minute performance both sides of the ball,” Cleary said.
“We executed the plan well with a bunch of HIA’s in regular occurrences in the second half, players went in different spots and we will be able to hold our defence together.
“Confidence is up a bit. We have another game next week. The challenge for us is to improve on that next week. Finals are a long way away. We’re not worried about that.”
Back-rower Michael Chee Kam served up Mbye’s first try as a Tiger when footwork helped him breeze by Walker before an Angus Crichton intercept pass had Corey Thompson race 80 metres to score.
Walker scored late for the Rabbitohs with Alex Johnston failing to finish the match with a knee injury.
WESTS TIGERS 22 (E Marsters M Mbye D Nofoaluma C Thompson tries E Marsters 3 goals) bt SOUTH SYDNEY 6 (C Walker try A Reynolds goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Chris Butler. Crowd: 25,963