Souths hooker Robbie Farah has put in a timely reminder to Blues coach Laurie Daley with a dominant match-winning performance in a big 28-8 win over his former club at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
Farah was in everything in his 80 minute performance, laying on two tries from dummy half and kicking magnificently while his former Wests Tigers teammates proved their own worst enemies with errors, poor options and a horror missed tackle rate making things harder than they needed to be.
A host of position switches rung by Souths coach Michael Maguire paid off handsomely with Farah starting for the first time since Round 4, Cody Walker unstoppable in his switch to fullback, Aaron Gray a massive handful in his injury return and John Sutton putting in some beautiful touches at five-eighth after being moved from the back row. Debutant Tyrell Fuimaono was also wonderful off the bench with five tackle busts and close to 100 metres.
An early brain explosion in the Tigers' capitulation was a punch thrown by prop Ava Seumanufagai to the back of Farah's head, leaving the referees no option but to use the sin bin.
While drizzly conditions and a couple of knock-ons from Tom Burgess scuppered Souths' early attacking chances but they crossed in the 12th minute on the back of a slick line break from Walker, putting Alex Johnston over in the corner.
The Tigers attempted to wind down the sin bin clock following Seumanufagai's 12th minute indiscretion with a penalty goal but undid that good work with an error in the following set, followed by a penalty.
The mountain of pressure saw Farah's short ball from dummy half send Sam Burgess crashing over in the 24th minute. The Tigers didn’t quite manage to get to the break without further damage; more good service from Farah created room for Adam Reynolds to send impressive back-rower Angus Crichton through a gaping hole to make it 16-2 at half time.
The Tigers caught Souths napping and snatched momentum early in the second half and when Farah fumbled a Luke Brooks grubber Elijah Taylor pounced to make it 16-8.
That was as good as it got for the home side though; Walker sent Johnston over for the second time shortly after Taylor's try then Farah sent Burgess crashing over for his second a few minutes after that.
At 28-8 with half an hour to play the question became how much Souths could score but the sting went out of the game and there was no further addition to the score.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 28 (Johnston 2, S Burgess 2, Crichton tries; Reynolds 4 goals) defeated Wests Tigers 8 (Taylor try; Moses 2 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Half time: Rabbitohs 16-2. Crowd: 12,213.
