A double to tryscoring machine Alex Johnston helped the Rabbitohs to an unconvincing 26-14 win over the Dragons in Cairns on Saturday afternoon.
Johnston now has 21 tries for the season and 187 for his career, just 25 behind the game's all-time leading tryscorer Ken Irvine on 212.
The day got off to a bad start for Souths when Jed Cartwright hurt his back in the warm-up and was a late scratching but they recovered quickly to grab first points when Johnston finished off some slick passing from Cameron Murray, Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell.
When Tyrell Sloan put a line dropout out on the full in the 18th minute the Rabbitohs took the chance to make the lead 8-0 with a Mitchell penalty goal.
The Rabbitohs then came up with a blunder of their own when they let the kick-off go into touch and the Red V made them pay when Moses Suli broke the line and found Mikaele Ravalawa in support for his 19th try of the season.
Alex Johnston try 10th minute
Souths had a number of chances to extend their lead but Mitchell came up with a forward pass and then a grubber kick that went dead as the red and green struggled to find their rhythm.
A dropped ball by Lachlan Ilias in the final minute of the half gave the Dragons great field position but a loose pass meant the opportunity came to nothing.
With the sides making 11 errors between them in the opening 40 minutes and only two tries scored, the big crowd in Cairns were made to wait only XXXX minutes after the break for the Rabbitohs capitalising on a Mat Feagai error to score from the scrumbase through Campbell Graham.
Mikaele Ravalawa 19th minute
A mistake by Siliva Havili straight from the kick-off proved disastrous for Souths as a pinpoint grubber by Talatau Amone was snaffled by Ben Hunt and the Dragons were back within four.
Six minutes later the Rabbitohs' big guns came to the party when Mitchell flew high to pull down a bomb before delivering a magical offload for Walker to score. Mitchell's conversion made it 20-10.
With 14 minutes to play the Dragons turned up the heat with a try to Sloan from a pinpoint Hunt grubber. The conversion went wide and Souths led 20-14.
A long range try from the Rabbitohs in the 72nd minute proved the killer blow as Johnston handled twice in the movement before dotting down for his second of the day.
The Rabbitohs' 12th win of the season lifts them to 28 competition points and into the top eight ahead of a clash with the Knights in Round 25 and a guaranteed two points from a bye in Round 26.
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Match Snapshot
- Rabbitohs interchange forward Jed Cartwright suffered back spasms in the warm-up and was a late withdrawal. Ben Lovett joined the bench.
- Dragons prop Michael Molo was placed on report in the sixth minute for a dangerous tackle.
- Rabbitohs hooker Damien Cook was placed on report in the 24th minute for a dangerous tackle.
- Rabbitohs five-eighth Cody Walker went on report in the 27th minute for a hip drop tackle on Tyrell Sloan.
- Dragons prop Blake Lawrie got through a power of work with 14 runs for 135 metres and 28 tackles.
Campbell Graham try 42nd minute
- Mat and Max Feagai and Ryan and Toby Couchman made history by becoming the first two sets of twins to appear in the same NRL game.
- The Rabbitohs came up with seven errors in the opening half.
- Dragons winger Mikaele Ravalawa has scored 11 tries in his past eight games.
- Rabbitohs winger Alex Johnston has scored 17 tries in his past 13 games. His career tally stands at 187, third behind Ken Irvine (212) and Billy Slater (190).
- Taane Milne ran for 202 metres for Souths to go with four tackle breaks and a line break.
- Dragons forward Ryan Couchman went for a HIA in the 56th minute which he passed.
Cody Walker try 50th minute
Play of the Game
Dragons halves Talatau Amone and Ben Hunt combined superbly just after half-time for a try that gave the Red V a quick answer to Campbell Graham's try. Amone took the ball at first receiver and dropped the ball onto his boot for Hunt to chase, the ball sitting up perfectly for the skipper to score the 79th try of his career.
Ben Hunt try 44th minute
What they Said
"We're not far off our best, not far at all. We're at the end of a really long travel period, we've had four in a row on the road, and we'll have some really good time at home over the next week. We won't go to Newcastle until Saturday next week so really looking forward to getting back and having some time with our families and recovering and going off to what will be a tough game next week. We were a lot happier than we have been with our defence. If you're keeping teams to under 14 points you're going to be hard to beat." - Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou
Rabbitohs: Round 24
"There's excuses everywhere around us if we want them but what I'm loving about this group of players is they're not finding any of them and not letting it be a thing and that's the way we are going to keep approaching it. We got out to win every week and we came in at half-time and said we are going to win this game. We felt good about how we were going about our business but we get a few moments wrong and when they've got a good team they put you to the sword. We're learning from those moments but we have to learn fast." - Dragons interim coach Ryan Carr
Dragons: Round 24
What's Next
The Rabbitohs continue their push for the finals with a huge clash against the Knights in Newcastle in Round 25 before meeting old foes the Roosters in the last round.
The Dragons host the Storm in Wollongong on Saturday night before finishing their season in Auckland against the Warriors.