The Warriors have asked forgiveness from their supporters after being humiliated by a rampant Gold Coast Titans at Robina.
The 11-try Titans smashed the abject Warriors 66-6, the biggest ever score by a Gold Coast team in the NRL.
“We got what we deserved. Today is very embarrassing,” Warriors coach Andrew Webster said.
“We got rolled completely down the field. Every single player is accountable for that today.
“Today we weren’t there physically, we got absolutely dominated.
“We didn’t deserve anything today.”
The NRL’s bottom side heading into Saturday afternoon’s contest, the Titans belied their lowly ladder position with a stunning obliteration of a Warriors side that were nothing short of pathetic, leaving their top eight hopes in tatters.
“It’s unbelievable. Physically, we were really poor. The boys know it. They’re devastated,” Webster said.
“The Titans are so fast and when you don’t turn up they’re capable of destroying you and they did that.”
Alofiana Khan-Pereira scored four tries, Keano Kini two, with Beau Fermor, Chris Randall, Keenan Palasia and Sam Verrills all scoring as well, with Jayden Campbell scoring a try and kicking 11 from 11.
Te Maire Martin scored a consolation for the Warriors, who were well off the pace all afternoon.
Skipper Tohu Harris said the team had to perform better next week against the Broncos in Auckland.
“We are embarrassed of the performance we put out there tonight,” Harris said.
“The thought of doing that at home just doesn’t sit well.”
However, ABC analyst Clinton Schifcofske said the team will find it hard to come back from such an awful performance.
“You don’t recover from bad days like this,” the former Queensland Origin winger said.
In Saturday’s second match, the Roosters had Fetalaiga Pauga sent off late for a swinging arm to the head of Bulldogs’ fullback Connor Tracey at a soggy Central Coast Stadium in Gosford.
But the tricolours still had enough to get the job done, running out winners 26-8 despite also seeing Sam Walker, who set up all four of the Roosters tries, sin binned to end the match with 11 men.
Then, in the final match of the night, the Rabbitohs ground out a dire 14-0 victory over Manly Warringah in awful conditions at the Olympic Stadium.
The win is Souths’ fourth in a row and was the first time since 1949 they have kept the Sea Eagles scoreless.
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
Key events
When you start at the top, the only way is down, I guess
Thanks Simon, that Titans performance was a hard act to follow…
– Mike
Tough conditions in New South Wales today for all four clubs.
But under cobalt blue skies in Queensland, the Titans really got it done earlier today.
That was the high point for a big day of NRL football.
And don’t make any mistake, we’ll be back for more tomorrow.
So thanks for joining us and we’ll see you then.
Souths claim gritty fourth win in a row
South Sydney get yet another victory, holding Manly scoreless at the Olympic stadium.
It was a dire dirge of a match thanks to the conditions, with Manly looking very bad in attack.
Souths won’t care though, they will, thanks to byes, go six weeks without defeat in the NRL, with four victories.
That is an impressive turn around.
Richard Kennar, Jye Gray and Keaon Koloamatangi with the tries.
Manly held scoreless in the NRL for the first time since 2022, and for the first time by Souths since 1949.
79′ Souths score another!
Keaon Koloamatangi crashes over!
A brilliant stretch by Koloamatangi, who raced after a poked kick from Damien Cook and had to contort himself to dot the ball down in his massive hand.
Nicely played.
The kick from Cody Walker is, for the first time since 2016, good!
Souths have four wins in a row.
77′ Tommy Talau on report
Tommy Talau has been put on report for putting his shoulder right under the chin of Jai Arrow.
Arrow is less than happy about it and is told by the referee that what he did was “totally unacceptable” and that if he did it again, he’d be in the sin bin.
It’s a penalty to Souths.
Advisable only in small doses
‘Freneticism’ is in the lead for word of the day 🙂
– Mike
Scoreless Sea Eagles?
Manly has not been held scoreless in a game since Round 10 of the 2022 season, a 38-0 defeat against Brisbane.
The last time Souths held Manly scoreless was 1949.
I fear your sentiments are being shared by many…
Pick up your game Manly or I’m leaving….
– Lucille
This has not been a classic.
But there’s always the chance for a grandstand finish…
And yes, I am hoping when I say that.
65′ Tommy Talau scores! But…
But was there a Manly lead runner that gets in the way?
There was, Keaon
Koloamatangi
was blocked by Ben Condon and that chalks off the try.
A score for Manly would have made things interesting – not least because there hasn’t been a score in this game since the 21st minute.
But if Manly could crash over, they could manage to get something out of the contest.
64′ Jack Wighton on report
A second high tackle for the match for Jack Wighton, and he’s on report for this one.
62′ Brilliant break from Jacob Gagai!
Souths have really burst into life in the last couple of minutes.
This time it’s Jacob Gagai who drives down the right wing and chases hard for the line.
He is smashed by a combination of Manly chasing tacklers and then, after a bit of freneticism, there is a knock on.
60′ Jye Gray has cramp
Interesting for Jye Gray – who takes a brilliant catch to diffuse a bomb.
He gets cramp though after being tackled.
It’s been a grueling, grinding sort of match, so perhaps a lot of the players are starting to feel it a bit.
57′ Jai Arrow cops a shoulder to the head
Oh that’s a nasty one for Jai Arrow.
He was bound in the tackle and got a shoulder to the head.
The Bunker had a look at it, and said no.
Incredibly, Arrow is going to stay out there? Surely not..
Toafofoa Sipley
absolutely hit him with the shoulder to the head, I guess in the grand scheme of things it’s a relatively low impact collision, but it sure looked like a shoulder to the head.
And it’s clearly affected Arrow, who looks dazed in truth.
Thankfully, the bunker doctor says Arrow needs to go off for an HIA and not play the ball, but I still have no idea how the referee can look at that contact and not rule and infringement.
41′ Karl Lawton with the break!
Manly needed a good start and they almost got it straight away.
A strong run from Ethan Bullemor releases Karl Lawton to have the first linebreak of the night. (Yeah, it’s been one of those).
He had options to the left of him, an option to the right and in the end, he messed it up as a backtracking Alex Johnston did just enough to force a poor pass.
41′ We’re back underway
Manly-Warringah are holding onto the ball first, attacking from right to left as we see things on our screens.
That’s not how you make diamonds, Des
Meanwhile, as you might expect, Des Hasler was pretty pleased with his team’s efforts.
He was particularly impressed with his halves partners Jayden Campbell and Kieran Foran.
“He showed today just how dangerous he can be,” Hasler said of Campbell.
“JC is instinctive. He creates points and line breaks around him.”
As for Foran, Haser admitted to something approaching alchemy with his 33-year-old skipper.
“You rub a fossil long and hard enough you get a diamond don’t you,” Hasler said, showing an alarming lack of knowledge about earth processes.
Nonetheless, Foran was brilliant for the Titans.
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‘Devastated’ Warriors hurt by ‘unbelievable’ defeat
Let’s look back at what some of the coaches have said from today’s matches, shall we?
Warriors coach Andrew Webster said his players were “devastated” by their heavy defeat to the Titans earlier on.
“We got what we deserved. Today is very embarrassing, but we can definitely come back,” Webster said.
“We got rolled completely down the field. Every single player is accountable for that today.
“It’s unbelievable. Physically, we were really poor. The boys know it. They’re devastated.
“The Titans are so fast and when you don’t turn up they’re capable of destroying you and they did that.”
Souths lead Manly at half-time
The conditions are not helping, let’s make that clear, but this is going to be a game for the purists.
Souths have been good, they’ve completed 21 of 23 sets so far in the match.
But there’s very little to write home about aside from the two tries to Richard Kennar and Jye Gray.
Souths will be pleased with their defence though – keeping Manly scoreless through 40m minutes of tough football.
40′ Alex Johnston almost scores!
Right at the death of the half, Johnston raced towards the corner looking for his 193rd NRL try.
But as he dived for the corner from a mile out and hoped for the slippery surface to slide him across the line, the plugged and lost the ball.
Not a great end to the half, but oddly appropriate on a night where errors are ruling great play at the moment.
35′ Cody Walker in a spot of bother
Not great news for Souths, but it looks like Cody Walker is struggling with a pec injury? or a shoulder? He’s out in the back of play and with the trainer.
He got hit by Tommy Talau and has pulled up very sore.
22′ Jye Gray gets maiden NRL try
Nice little moment there, and a nice little move for the youngster.
Jye Grey was fed by Cody Walker, the 170 cm-tall 20-year-old took the ball to the line at pace, showed a hint of a dummy before scooting over.
Walker gets closer with the kick but still misses, it’s 8-0.
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