After a week from hell, the South Sydney Rabbitohs have responded in the best possible way, rallying from a shocking first few minutes to trounce the Manly Sea Eagles 38-18 front of 10,183 fans at Brookvale.
With so much concern after Greg Inglis was ruled out for the year with an ACL injury, it was his replacement Alex Johnston who all but put the game beyond doubt late in the second half, slicing through on the right to score - and when that was converted, it was beyond a one-score game and the Bunnies never looked back.
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Rabbitohs claim comeback win over Manly
A strong performance from halves Cody Walker and Adam Reynolds has helped South Sydney fight back from 12-nil down to thrash Manly at Lottoland 38-18.
"It was good to see AJ play and perform the way he did, he's definitely got that him", said coach Michael Maguire after the game.
And while the coach conceded that the team "probably didn't defend the way we wanted to do in the first 20", he was full of praise for his new look spine, which thrived with the returning Adam Reynolds.
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"He's become a leader. He's become a really strong presence in our team", the coach said of his halfback, who played his first game of the year after battling appendicitis.
When asked about the stretch at the end of the clash when both of the club's hookers were on the field, he said "I thought they played a really smart game" - and that was evident with the former Tigers skipper crossing the stripe after great work from his deputy.
In the final minutes, Robbie Farah grabbed his first try for the club, backing up on the inside of Robert Jennings who had streaked away upfield after a great break from Damien Cook.
The icing was put on the cake with just over five to go, as Farah grubbered through for Johnston to acrobatically grab his second, grounding it just in front of the dead ball line.
"I thought we were poor last week, we didn't bring any line speed to the game or shape to our defence so we worked on that this week," said Bunnies' skipper Sam Burgess.
"We've got things to work on from today, it's nice to get our first win but we've got a bit of improving to do".
Both Manly coach Trent Barrett and captain Dally Cherry-Evans were curt in their assessment of their side's performance, with the coach saying "when we were under the pump and under fatigue we weren't good enough."
The skipper echoed his coach's sentiments, refusing to blame fatigue for the result. "We can't use that as an excuse today. Defensively last week that was our biggest strength, today it was our biggest weakness.
"Four tries is enough to win a first grade game, more often than not."
For a game that finished with such a lopsided scoreline, it could have been so much closer - with one quarter of the game left, the scores were even - despite the hosts outscoring the visitors four tries to three.
But then, Jorge Taufua spilled a bomb which was then picked up by an offside Akuila Uate, allowing Adam Reynolds to kick a simple penalty and wrestle back the lead.
It had been a tense battle before that. With the game tied and 25 minutes to go, Brenton Lawrence and Tom Trbojevic combined superbly to hold Sam Burgess up over the line on the last, forcing a handover.
The first ten minutes of the second half was one-way traffic for South Sydney, but a pair of goal line errors from George Burgess and Kyle Turner saw them come away pointless, before Manly hit them with the ultimate sucker punch. The Trbojevic brothers combined with Jake offloading to Tom down the right flank who found Cherry-Evans in support.
Michael Maguire's men found themselves in a deep hole in the early stages, and it wasn't long before it looked as though the Bunnies were headed for a similar result to the one they suffered last week at the hands of Wests Tigers.
Manly found themselves in an attacking position after a strong kick return from Uate which resulted in a penalty, and it was the former Newcastle winger who opened the scoring in the fifth minute.
The Rabbitohs compounded that early setback by booting the ensuing kick-off out on the full, and were made to pay once again as Brian Kelly split the goal line defence on the last tackle after a short ball from Cherry-Evans.
It became three tries in seven minutes as Tom Trbojevic was the beneficiary of another superb Uate return.
With the Rabbitohs attacking, a Cody Walker grubber was scooped up by the winger who beat the chasers and sprinted away before finding his fullback in support, who had too much pace for the chasing Bunnies.
Only Dylan Walker's wayward goalkicking was keeping the visitors in it, with the former South Sydney player missing all three attempts from the sideline.
And it was the Rabbitohs who would score next, after a strong defensive set forced an error from Tom Trbojevic, Jennings scored on the left-hand side in his debut for the club - and after a sideline conversion from Adam Reynolds, the margin was only six.
Souths were attacking the line again before Blake Green was sent to the bin for a professional foul - some were calling for a penalty try, but it didn't matter - the Rabbitohs took full advantage just three plays later, Cody Walker stepping his way through on the left edge before another kicked levelled the scores.
With a man advantage still in play, Souths took the lead - a huge break down the left by Bryson Goodwin resulted in a repeat set, and John Sutton touched down under the posts after some great linkup play from Walker and Farah.
The final few minutes of the half saw Green's return and a spell of territorial dominance from the Sea Eagles, but the red and green wall held firm to take an 18-12 lead into the sheds.
Originally published on The Sydney Morning Herald as NRL 2017: South Sydney Rabbitohs open account for the year with win over Manly Sea Eagles.
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