A humble Greg Inglis has credited a strong effort from his side's forwards and dangerous new-look halves combination of Adam Reynolds and Dylan Walker for helping him earn a hat trick in the side's 28-12 opening round win over the Roosters.
"I think [the halves] give us a great edge, especially with [John] Sutton in the middle, he's just another big forward playing five eighth," the Rabbitohs fullback told journalists after the game.
"It frees them up and Dylan Walker with his speed out the back there and the forwards give us a lot of room," he said.
To score a hat-trick personally was "a good start" but he added "in saying that we have a good group of forwards who can get us through up through the middle".
However the 27-year-old's club captain John Sutton spoke more highly of the fullback's performance.
"It looks like he's playing under-7s sometimes when he's bowling people over," Sutton said at the post-match press conference.
"He's all class, he's been doing it or years now and I'm glad to be playing alongside him."
Inglis said the game had been brutal and extremely hard fought for 60 minutes but the Rabbitohs had been able to stick to their game plan and was lucky enough to pull away at the end.
"You never know in these games, you can play all the trials you want but in the end Round 1 is all that matters, with all the rule changes and everything... for 60 minutes it was hard fought and we were lucky enough to get away in the last 20."
He said the club's high performance unit did tremendous jobs with all the players coming back from World Cup duty (Inglis, hooker Issac Luke, centre Bryson Goodwin and forwards George and Sam Burgess).
"They fast tracked us and make sure we did a few sessions in there if we needed and we definitely did that. Like I say you play the trials but they're low intensity until you get to Round 1."
With the Rabbitohs to play next weekend against Manly in Gosford they are opening their season against both 2013 grand final sides and Inglis said "we couldn't think of a better way to start as a team and as a club".
"We can only see where we go from [here] and it starts again next week against Manly up in Gosford, but in saying that we're going to sit back and enjoy the weekend and get ready for Monday," he said.
