The Sydney Roosters have absolutely imploded with ill-discipline and heavy injuries hurting as the South Sydney Rabbitohs took a 26-16 victory in front of 22,000 fans at Stadium Australia.
The Roosters were a step below the Rabbitohs with plenty of errors during the first half and a lack of discipline really hurting the Eastern Suburbs boys. Souths left-side attack was the focal point of their efforts and it paid off early on when Cody Walker was able to get through after some good work by Latrell Mitchell.
Errors and ill-discipline continued to hurt the Roosters and it was down the clinical left-hand side as Latrell Mitchell again drew in the Roosters defence which left a 2-on-1 overlap which Dane Gagai took advantage of to score.
If Trent Robinson thought things couldn't get any worse for his side, they were certainly going to get worse has discipline continued to slide as the Roosters were penalised for a high tackle from which the Rabbitohs added a penalty goal. The ill-discipline somehow still disintegrated when Daniel Suluka-Fifita was sent to the sin bin for a coward punch on Jai Arrow when the second rower was on the ground.
The Rabbitohs added another four-pointer as they continued to give away set restarts to slow things down but the lack of numbers hurt when they couldn't slide out and Josh Mansour got on the board for the Rabbitohs.
Souths opened the scoring in the second half and it looked as if the floodgates were going to be well and truly open for the Bunnies attack. Cody Walker added his second try of the night when Dane Gagai got through the line before offloading to Walker who scored.
The Roosters added their first points of the night as James Tedesco swooped on an error from the Rabbitohs and just charged away for the Roosters first try of the night.
Injuries then became the biggest issue for the Roosters with Lindsay Collins suffering a heavy concussion which saw him taken to Hospital whilst Lachlan Lam and Luke Keary both suffered potentially serious leg injuries which could derail the season for the Roosters.
The Roosters added two consolation tries following the Rabbitohs putting the cue in the rack with the Morris twins scoring either side of a Latrell Mitchell penalty goal. Brett Morris scored after outleaping Alex Johnston to get the ball to the ground. The final try of the night came as a consolation try to the Josh Morris who chased through a grubber to score.
Next weekend, the Rabbitohs will again be at Stadium Australia up against the Bulldogs in a traditional Good Friday clash whilst the Roosters play host to the Warriors for an Easter Sunday night battle.