Fresh from playing a key role in helping the Rabbitohs take down the ladder-leading Brisbane Broncos on Friday night, Rabbitohs halfback Lachlan Ilias shared how he was enjoying finding his place in his team.
Speaking to NRL.com after his side posted a dominant 32-6 at Suncorp Stadium, Ilias was impressed by the way South Sydney bounced back from a poor start which included having their captain Cameron Murray spend time in the sin bin in the opening minutes of the match.
“It was a good win … we spoke about keeping them under 14 points and towards the end of the game, that was our main goal,” Ilias said.
“Obviously, we let in that one try in with 12 people in the field, but apart from that, our defence was pretty solid.
“JD (Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou) spoke about that, he said he was really impressed with how we responded (to the sinbinning).
“He said we were probably a bit slow to start the game and the sin bin sort of woke us up and I think we scored a try as well while Cam was in the bin, so it was six-all and that's an even match with one in the bin so I think we did a good a job.
Graham gets the first try
“We always knew that they were going to come out strong; Broncos at Suncorp is always a tough challenge and I think let them march and finish their sets inside our half too easily for the first couple of sets.
“When Cammo went in the bin, I think that we responded well and then that's when we started defending better and we locked them in their half.”
With another tough game against a top eight rival coming up for this weekend’s Magic Round game in Melbourne Storm, Ilias said he was looking forward to the week ahead, but knew there was work to do.
“Suncorp is a great place to play, it's a good atmosphere, it's loud and next week's Magic Round; and it’s always good to play,” Ilias said.
“Last year, we played the Warriors and it was really good atmosphere, even though we were the three o'clock game, there was a massive crowd and I’m just excited.
“Storm is obviously a tough challenge next week and we’ll have to play the full 80 minutes against them and I think we'll be ready.”
Match: Storm v Rabbitohs
Round 10 -
home Team
Storm
6th Position
away Team
Rabbitohs
2nd Position
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Now in his third year in the NRL and his second since being thrust into the halfback role fulltime following the departure of Adam Reynolds to the Broncos, Ilias has grown into his position, but was always working to improve his game.
“Just trying to work on my defence and I'm trying to not be a liability in the defensive line and I can always improve my kicking game,” Ilias said.
“If I get those two things right, I think my confidence will get up and allow me to do what I need to do in attack and just give the boys the ball.
“(I need to) create space for Latrell (Mitchell), Cody (Walker) and Stretch (Campbell Graham) and let them score tries, so hopefully if I can do my job better.”
