WAYNE OWNS ERROR
Rabbitohs won’t fall into the same trap again against Sea Eagles
AFTER watching his decision to shift Adam Doueihi from fullback to wing backfire spectacularly in Friday night’s 30-6 pounding at the hands of the Sydney Roosters, South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett won’t be making the same mistake again.
On top of the return from suspension of inspirational skipper Samburgess, Bennett is expected to make a major reshuffle to his backline when South Sydney take onmanly in this Friday night’s suddendeath semi-final at ANZ Stadium.
With Dane Gagai set to return from a hamstring injury, James Roberts will revert to right centre with Doueihi most likely taking over at fullback and Alex Johnston back on the wing.
Johnston has made no secret of the fact fullback is his favoured position but right now his best fit for the team is on the wing given Braidon Burns’ - injury absence.
Youngster Corey Allan would be the player to drop out if Gagai is passed fit as expected.
It definitely gives the Rabbitohsmore punch coming out of yardage while the other major boost will be Burgess’s return.
It was painfully obvious the Rabbitohs didn’t have the same — Steve Zemek self-belief that they had in the round 25 win over the Roosters without Burgess, and that combined with a mistake-riddled start just destroyed their confidence.
It wasn’t until the second half that they finally lifted and started playing with a mentality befitting of finals football and the fact they finished the second half 6-4 ahead on the scoreboard shows that they are not dead and buried as title-contenders just yet if they get their heads back in the game.
Bennett said the second half response “was important”.
“To have any chance next week we needed to redeem ourselves and get some confidence back in what we can do and what we need to do,” Bennett explained.
“At half time the game was lost and we just had to try and salvage what we could out of it and I think we did a pretty good job second half.”
In both games againstmanly this year only a field goal has separated the teams with the Sea Eagles winning the first clash and Souths the second.
This is going to be another tight contest and Souths just can’t afford to start as slow as they have the past two weeks.
Before the game plenty of good judges believed Bennett made the right call moving Johnston back to fullback because of his electric speed. But it just didn’t work.
Bennett conceded straight after the game it was his error which means it won’t be the same line-up next time around.
“He has played with such confidence in every position I have put (Doueihi) in this year when we have had all the injuries,” Bennett said.
“He has played halfback, he has played five-eighth, he played fullback and handled them all really well.
“It was maybe a bridge a bit too far for him (playing on the wing) at this stage of his footy career. That wasmy decision so I take the responsibility for that.”