Bunnies blast Knights off the park and out of the finals

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South Sydney Rabbitohs v Newcastle Knights

Souths red-hot attack from last week returned to rack up 46 points in 64 minutes to romp home to a comfortable 26-point, 46-20 victory against Newcastle at ANZ Stadium.

The Knights started strongly and got out to a surprise 14-0 lead early in the game, starting in the third minute when Hymel Hunt got outside his man and dived over to score in the corner. Kalyn Ponga converted from touch.

Just three minutes later they were in again after Lachlan Fitzgibbon broke through a tackle before linking with Bradman Best, who outran the cover defender to score out wide. Ponga again nailed the difficult conversion.

Ponga added a penalty goal in the 12th minute. A minute later the Knights were on the attack again after an Adam Reynolds kick struck Fitzgibbon in the legs and the Knights forward cleaned up the loose ball. An error just a few plays later let the Bunnies off the hook and they went on the attack.

And they never stopped attacking.

In the 16th minute Souths ran it on the last, sending the ball to the left edge where Corey Allan received the ball, slipped out of a weak low tackle attempt by Enari Tuala to score a soft try. Reynolds failed to convert.

From the restart, Reynolds kicked high on the last tackle and Ponga spilled the ball into touch. Some brilliant teamwork by the Rabbitohs halves off the back of the scrum saw Reynolds receive the ball on the left and threw a blind short ball to Cody Walker, who was running around behind Reynolds, then took the pass and strolled through a huge gap to score a stunning try. Reynolds added the extras.

In the 23rd minute, Souths levelled the scores after Walker put Alex Johnston over for a good try in the left corner which Reynolds failed to convert.

Souths took the lead just under 3 minutes before halftime when Damien Cook made his trademark dart from dummy-half before drawing Ponga and then getting a nice ball to Cameron Murray who strolled over to score under the posts. Reynolds converted and at halftime, Souths lead 20-14 despite being down 14-0 after 12 minutes.

The second half was a Rabbitohs blitz. Reynolds kicked a penalty goal in the 48th minute and then in the 61st minute, the avalanche of tries poured in.

Tevita Tatola took a crash ball into the middle and was held back short of the line, but he somehow got his arm free and got the ball down for a try despite not being able to see if he was planting it in the right place. Amazing effort. Reynolds converted.

In the 70th minute Souths again went to the left and this time Allan pulled off a lovely catch and pass to Johnston, who dived over in the corner to score his second try of the game. Reynolds converted from out wide.

In the 73rd minute Cook fired a quick flat ball to Tatola who basically took 3 steps to crash over and score under the posts. Reynolds converted.

3 minutes later, the Knights were on the attack when Mitchell Pearce dropped the ball cold and looked at it. Murray picked it up and passed to Cook who then ran 80 metres to score. Dane Gagai converted this try.

Right on fulltime, Newcastle scored a consolation try when Hymel Hunt bounced out of one tryline tackle, spun and fell over the line to score in the right corner. Aidan Guerra in his last game got to take the shot at goal and perfectly landed the sideline conversion. Souths strolling home to a 46-20 victory.