South Sydney pulled off a gutsy 20-14 win over the Sydney Roosters to snap a four-game losing streak against their arch-rivals that left Wayne Bennett effusive in his praise.
The victory came at a heavy price though with Jamie Humphreys ruled out during the opening exchanges with a hamstring injury before his halves partner, Cody Walker, joined him on the sidelines.
Despite being ravaged with injuries, Bennett’s side found a way to wrestle the lead from the Chooks with the returning Latrell Mitchell providing the late match-winning play.
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Wayne Bennett labels Souths win one of the proudest of his career amid injury carnage
The Rabbitohs started the contest in strong form as they powered through the middle and set up camp almost permanently in the red zone.
Yet they repeatedly came up empty-handed before Sandon Smith stepped through some meek defence during a rare foray into opposition territory to score. Humphreys’ injury news compounded the sucker punch.
The Bunnies recovered though with Jayden Sullivan placed in the halves and Tevita Tatola soon crashing over to level the scores.
Mitchell then looked to have forced his way over upon his return from a long-term absence but was correctly denied by the Bunker.
The match marked the first time the star had lined up in the centres since he starred for the Roosters during their triumphant 2019 grand final and he proved to be a constant menace during the first half.
However, when Souths emerged for the second stanza more bad news followed them with Walker ruled out of the contest with hamstring tightness.
The veteran’s absence understandably caused chaos in the ranks, with the Bunnies’ attacking structures left in tatters.
And when Billy Smith found his way to the line, it looked like the mountain would be too high for the home side to climb.
"When they went up to 14-8, that could have been 30-8 in ten minutes but no one in the side thought they couldn’t win and it was over," Bennet said post-match while declaring it one of the proudest wins of his illustrious career.
"Words don’t explain it well enough. It’s the actions that will stay in the memory for a long, long time.
"It’s up there in my entire coaching career. It’s in the grand final, I can tell you."
With Mikaele Ravalawa being struck down by the dreaded hamstring curse 10 minutes into the second half, the Rabbitohs were left with just one man on the bench while trying to reel in the Roosters.
The positional changes were dizzying as Jack Wighton shifted to the wing, Jai Arrow moved into the centres, Tallis Duncan dropped into the backline and Mitchell took over at five-eighth.
Jye Gray was the one constant and he grabbed a try his tireless performance at fullback deserved after good work in the lead-up by Sullivan.
It then inevitably fell to Mitchell to produce the winning play with his 30-metre cut-out pass sending Isaiah Tass over in the corner with just millimetres to spare.
"I don’t remember that ever happening to me," Bennett said after watching his side overcome the injury carnage.
"It’s what you want your team to do and what you want your team to be part of. To overcome what they did tonight, it was pretty special."