Bunnies nervous in finals spotlight

RABBITOHS coach Michael Maguire is facing the biggest challenge of his NRL tenure to re-ignite the red and green charge towards the finals.

SOUTH Sydney coach Michael Maguire is facing the biggest challenge of his NRL tenure to re-ignite the red and green charge towards the business end of the season.

As two of the great rugby league adages state, you learn more from a loss than you do from a win, and you would rather win ugly than lose pretty.

Last night, Cronulla won ugly and the Rabbitohs had plenty of lessons to heed. In their biggest two litmus tests this season against premiers Manly and then the Sharks last night, the Bunnies have come up short.

Until Sam Burgess crashed over in the 53rd minute, Souths had failed to score a point for 130 minutes of football. And their only two tries in the past fortnight have come from the English international charging and spinning close to the line.

Nothing from attacking strike weapons Nathan Merritt, Andrew Everingham or Dylan Farrell.

Plenty of people have been asking how rookie halfback Adam Reynolds would hold up in his first season of NRL down the home stretch of the season into the finals.

His answer last night suggested it won't be a problem. The composure shown by Reynolds to kick a difficult field goal with 15 minutes remaining demonstrated the experience of a more seasoned NRL campaigner.

Reynolds then learned a valuable defensive lesson when Sharks rookie Tyson Frizzell isolated him one-on-one close to the line and powered over to send Cronulla to the lead.

Or as South Sydney co-captain Burgess said afterwards: "In the important stage of the game with 15 minutes to go they snuck a cheap try on us."

When the Rabbitohs were on their six-game winning streak, they beat teams hardly considered heavyweights - Penrith, Newcastle, the Roosters, St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers and the Gold Coast are all below the Bunnies on the ladder.

For the Sharks, this was the type of grinding win they needed after losing four of their last five matches.