South Sydney Rabbitohs hammer Newcastle Knights in NRL round 18 clash at ANZ Stadium

THE sickening hit on Newcastle Knights debutant Kyle O'Donnell overshadowed a brilliant display from the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Sam Burgess

WAYNE Bennett's concern yesterday was less about his side's ham-fisted loss to Souths and more about the sickening shoulder charge of Sam Burgess on Knights debutant Kyle O'Donnell.

The hit on the backrower was bad enough. Nothing illegal, mind you. Just a gruesome head clash that forced O'Donnell to be later taken to hospital as a precaution.

No, what Bennett and the Knights were furious about was the decision from referees Ashley Klein and Brett Suttor to let the play continue, despite O'Donnell looking so spaced out he may as well have been riding the spinning cup-and-saucer ride at Disneyland.

"It was ridiculous what they done," Bennett fumed. "Everybody in the ground knew what had happened. He's laying on the ground there and they let the game play. It wasn't that the game was 10-all or something. The NRL's at us all the time about player welfare. We've all got to take a bit of responsibility for it, just can't be the coaches and the players. The referees have got to buy into it too. Everybody in the ground knew the state he was in. If that's not a reason to stop the game then and there, we'll never have a reason."

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The incident came in the 69th minute after Souths had kicked off following Knights winger Akuila Uate's second try of the afternoon.

O'Donnell, the younger brother of former Kangaroos forward Luke, was returning the ball. Burgess lined him up and whacked him with a right shoulder.

The impact was heavy and O'Donnell was out cold, but the play was left to continue regardless after he spilled the ball and Souths did their best to capitalise.

GALLERY: RABBITOHS V KNIGHTS

Knights captain Danny Buderus remonstrated with Suttor to stop the play.

"I was just (worried about) the welfare of my player," Buderus said. "I thought the game might have been pulled up pretty quick. I thought the game would have been stopped, with a mouth guard in ... A lot of things you can worry about. My main concern was how he was. He said, 'I know the rules', and I said, 'I know the rules as well'."

Souths captain Michael Crocker thought there was nothing in it.

"It's the same as every other play," he said. "You don't stop until the play's over and he's dropped the ball there and I thought the referees did the right thing in letting it play on and reviewing it at the end of it. They stopped play straight away after the play was dead."

Of course, the cynical view could be that Bennett was trying to divert attention away from the performance of his team.

The veteran coach also claimed Uate had allowed the ball to be stolen from his grasp by Souths backrower Chris McQueen in the in-goal, which pushed the score out to 34-10, because the referees had called the Souths players were offside from a grubber kick. The try was awarded via video referee Bernard Sutton.

Despite all of this, it was clear to every Souths fan at ANZ Stadium yesterday that their side is building in confidence with every week.

Some may doubt their premiership bona fides, preferring to see them consistently beat the better sides, but in a fickle and unpredictable competition they are as much a chance as anyone.

They led 22-10 at half-time, running away with it in the second half, but the damage was done up front.

Hulking, skilful and quick forwards like Sam Burgess and Dave Taylor will always be a handful in this game, as they were yesterday.

"There's a really strong belief in the team and a lot of confidence growing," coach Michael Maguire said. "The players themselves are looking at areas that they need to make sure that they improve on and continually work at, so it makes my job pretty easy."

SOUTH SYDNEY 34 (A Everingham D Farrell I Luke C McQueen N Peats J Sutton tries A Reynolds 5 goals) bt NEWCASTLE 14 (A Uate 2 C Houston tries T Roberts goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Brett Suttor, Ashley Klein. Crowd: 16,104.