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Awful Rabbitohs lose fifth straight
The aura surrounding the 2014 Rabbitohs appears to be all but gone after the Cowboys hold the premiers from two years ago in a scoreless 20-nil win.
In front of a strong crowd of 14,923 at Barlow Park, the defending premiers barely got out of first gear to claim their most comprehensive win in almost a month, and extend the Rabbitohs' losing streak to five.
The Rabbitohs barely fired a shot in front of a strong Barlow Park crowd of 14,923, who instead watched Cowboys skipper Johnathan Thurston put on a clinic.
The Queensland State of Origin star scored a try and had a hand in another, helping the visitors consolidate their spot in the top four before getting a well-deserved early mark in the 75th minute.
While Cowboys coach Paul Green was delighted with keeping the Rabbitohs scoreless, co-captain Matt Scott rued an opportunity to pour on the points.
"We were good without being great," Scott said post-game.
"Defensively it was a lot better, we spoke a bit about that during the week. Letting in five tries against Manly last week was a bit disappointing and defensively we came out and improved a lot.
"With the ball we can be a bit more clinical, we controlled field position pretty well but execution a couple of times let us down."
For the Rabbitohs however, the defeat continues their miserable 2016 campaign and leaves them with the near-impossible task of winning all eight of their remaining games to make the finals.
Led by James Tamou and Matt Scott, the Cowboys forwards strolled through the Rabbitohs middle with concerning ease, paving the way for Thurston and company to ruin John Sutton's 250-game celebrations.
Greg Inglis and Luke Keary tried hard for the visitors, as did Sam Burgess, although the star forward succumbed to a knee injury midway through the second half.
The game started horribly for the home side from the moment winger Joe Burgess was trapped in his in-goal following Kyle Feldt's trademark towering kickoff.
"Right from the start, the possession in the game definitely went against us, but that's rugby league," Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire said.
"You've got to be able to handle those periods, right through that first half we weren't ale to build momentum in what we were trying to do and they did."
From there it was all the Cowboys, who used a 65 per cent possession rate in the first half to lay on tries for Thurston and Scott and take a comfortable 14-0 lead at the break.
A try to Javid Bowen kicked the advantage to three tries early in the second half before the Cowboys closed out the match by keeping an opposition side scoreless for the third time this year.