Souths turn corner despite 28-22 loss - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Souths turn corner despite 28-22 loss

By Justin Chadwick 14/06/2009 02:40:50 PM Comments (0)

South Sydney coach Jason Taylor is adamant his team have turned the corner despite suffering a heartbreaking 28-22 NRL defeat to Melbourne Storm in Perth on Saturday night.

The Rabbitohs led by eight points midway through the second half before the Storm piled on three tries in the space of 13 minutes to steal the win.

But despite the loss, which leaves South Sydney three points adrift of eighth spot, Taylor felt his team had cast away their defensive demons of the previous two weeks, when they leaked a combined 80 points in losses to Canberra and North Queensland.

"We feel our season started tonight in rebounding from where we'd been and that's the sort of footy we want to display for the remainder of the season and if we do we will get ourselves right back in the hunt," Taylor said.

"We haven't played anything like that over the past couple of weeks and I was never going to be too worried about the scoreboard.

"I wanted us to prove that we are a committed footy team who's prepared to play some tough footy and get in the game against one of the best teams in the comp, and that's what we did.

"What we'd done over the last two weeks had been no good, not good enough, not up to the standard we set ourselves and not good enough for the NRL.

"Defensively was the biggest area we wanted to improve because over the last few weeks teams have been making too many yards on us, just marching up the field and sometimes going 100m in a set.

"We worked hard to address that this week."

Melbourne surged to third on the table following their second win on the trot and coach Craig Bellamy was full of praise for his team's fighting spirit.

Storm centre Greg Inglis was crucial in the come-from-behind triumph, setting up the final two tries of the match to inspire his team to victory.

"He's just so hard to handle," Bellamy said of the Storm playmaker.

"Every time he gets the ball he's threatening.

"He's done a great job for us at five-eighth but since he's been in the centres for us, his involvement has been tremendous.

"If he gets the ball often enough he's going to do something."

Bellamy said lock Dallas Johnson, who was assisted off the field in the second half after copping a heavy knock to the head, would be fit for Sunday's clash with West Tigers.

"He's OK, just a bit dizzy," Bellamy said.

"Dallas would be embarrassed ... coming off with a head knock.

"He's the toughest thing I've ever seen playing footy."

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