Cameron Murray has praised a brave South Sydney outfit following their opening-round victory over Cronulla, with two key players succumbing to injury in the first-half.
Tevita Tatola was taken from the field after the first play of the game with a head knock and did not return, while his replacement Jai Arrow was also forced off in the opening 40 minutes with a hamstring complaint.
Latrell Mitchell also pushed through a minor PCL issue to help steer the Bunnies to a 27-18 victory on the road at Shark Park, with some gallant efforts in defence keeping them in the lead late in the game.
Speaking to the media after earning a vital two points, Murray commended his troops for their fighting spirit in tough conditions.
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“I’m pretty proud of how we performed out there, being Round 1 and match fitness probably not being up where it needs to be," he said.
"We had to rely pretty heavily one some of the middles there, and some of the middles that haven’t played a lot of footy.
"Shaq [Mitchell] played 40-straight and I was really impressed with his effort…Tom [Burgess] stepped up as well.
"I was pretty proud given that we lost two middles early in the game."
Lachlan Ilias was the star of the show for the Rabbitohs, producing the best performance of his early NRL career on both sides of the ball, saving a try and scoring one himself early in the game before setting up another four-pointer later in the piece.
Head coach Jason Demetriou wasn't shocked to see the 22-year-old stand up and put the competition on notice.
“It’s up there [with his best games], he was good - he wasn’t perfect and I didn’t think we were gonna be, I didn’t think anyone was gonna be perfect today," Demetriou said.
"He is an established first grader and he knows how to play footy. I thought he identified some areas that we could exploit in the first-half and in the second-half they were pretty clinical in going after it.
"I wasn’t surprised to see him put it in…we got the rewards from it."
Ilias was responsible for some quality attacking raids down the right-hand side of the field, which is the complete opposite of what has made the Bunnies so lethal in recent years.
Asked if the side had put an emphasis on their right-side offence during the pre-season, Demetriou claimed it had already started coming together in 2022 and they are only continuing to improve.
“I think our right-side really grow last year," he said.
"At the back-end of the year I thought we were as dangerous on our right as we were on our left. The evolution of Keaon [Koloamatangi] and Campbell Graham has added to that and I thought Izaac [Thompson] was good tonight.
"We’ve got some stability on that edge – we’ve found who that edge is and they’ve spent some time pre-season training together and they nailed it tonight."
