The Melbourne Storm have put a huge dent in the South Sydney Rabbitohs finals hopes with a thrilling 18-16 win at AAMI Park.
There was no magical fairy this week, with the Bunnies unable to score a miraculous last minute victory over the Storm like they did last week against the Tigers.
Two tries from Nathan Merritt including his 100th career try in the 72nd minute, set up a mouth-watering final 8 or so minutes, as Souths desperately tried to take the lead, but couldn’t.
“We weren’t consistent enough over the 80 minutes”, says Bunnies coach John Lang.
“We were in a position to win the game and we didn’t”.
The Bunnies loss leaves them hanging precariously on the fringes of the 8 in a congested ladder, with only 10 points separating 12 teams.
Despite the club’s precarious position, coach John Lang isn’t concerned in the slightest.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m not even worried about it. We’ve got three games to go and we want to win them all, and we start next Friday night”, says Lang.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy praised his players for their tough defence following the loss of Aiden Tolman to a suspected rib cartilage injury and Chase Stanley to an elbow injury.
“Certainly our defence was a lot better than the last couple of weeks, and after last week it was very pleasing to come out and play like that”, says Bellamy.
The match had a special significance for Souths five-eighth Luke Capewell, with the opening try scored by Capewell himself, in memory of his grandfather who passed away last week.