Wests Tigers have started the 2017 NRL season in great fashion, recording a 34-18 victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium tonight.
The six tries to four victory continued a strong run of games against the Rabbitohs, with the Club winning it’s past three matches now against the Redfern-based outfit.
South Sydney opened the scoring early with a wrap-around play and then a shift left that found Bryson Goodwin for the first try of the match.
The winger was unable to convert his own try from near the sideline, however the Rabbitohs held a 4-0 lead after just six minutes.
Young Wests Tigers winger Moses Suli did well to take advantage of second phase play soon after, slicing through and offloading to Ava Seumanufagai who barged over for the Club’s first try of the season.
Mitchell Moses converted the try from close range to put his side in the lead 6-4 after 15 minutes.
On their very next charge downfield, fullback James Tedesco showed he was continuing his 2016 form with a brilliant individual try – stepping Kyle Turner, while also beating Sam Burgess and Alex Johnston to score.
Moses made no mistake with the extra points, taking Wests Tigers out to a 12-4 lead after 19 minutes.
The Tedesco show continued soon after, with the speedster sending Chris Lawrence over with a quality pass, as Wests Tigers quickly raced out to a 18-4 lead after 25 minutes with the Moses conversion.
It looked like the scores would stay that way at the half time break, however an unexpected cross-field kick from a scrum from Cody Walker found an open Greg Inglis on the wing who went over untouched.
The conversion was waved away from Bryson Goodwin in the 39th minute, with Wests Tigers going into the sheds with an 18-8 advantage.
The second stanza couldn’t have started in better fashion for Wests Tigers as Tedesco found David Nofoaluma on a kick return who sliced through and found Moses back on the inside who raced away to finish the 90-metre effort.
Moses converted to extend the buffer to 16-points, with Wests Tigers now ahead 24-8 after just 42 minutes.
Great hand by Tedesco found Suli who stepped back on the inside and got the pass away to Luke Brooks who went over to score in the 51st minute.
Moses added another conversion to make it a 30-8 advantage after just 52 minutes of play.
The flurry of tries continued as Suli managed to cross the line himself in the left corner, emphasising what was an already impressive NRL debut from the 18-year-old.
The conversion was waved away from the sideline as Wests Tigers went out to a commanding 34-8 lead after 57 minutes.
South Sydney managed to peg one back in the 67th minute when Goodwin crossed for his second of the night, with the winger also nailing the sideline conversion to make it 34-14.
Goodwin completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute as he finished another quality shift to the left edge, the conversion was waved away however as the score remained 34-18.
With 40 seconds remaining on the clock, the skipper Aaron Woods looked to put the icing on the cake for Wests Tigers, however he was ruled to have lost the ball over the line and the final score remained 34-18.
Wests Tigers 34 (Seumanufagai, Tedesco, Lawrence, Moses, Brooks, Suli tries; Moses 5/6 goals) defeated South Sydney 14 (Goodwin 3, Inglis tries; Goodwin 1/4 goals)
