Souths battle to stay pride of league   August 16, 2008 http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24190340-23214,00.html SOUTH Sydney coach Jason Taylor wants the Rabbitohs to be more than just a nuisance for top eight contenders, believing the NRL club's pride is at stake over the closing rounds. The Bunnies are still the slightest mathematical chance of making the NRL finals but they head into Sunday's match against Manly at ANZ Stadium knowing their season is effectively dead after the loss to Cronulla last week. The Rabbitohs did well to salvage something out of a season that had them looking destined to collect the wooden spoon after they had won just one match in the opening 13 rounds. Their mid-season form turnaround helped restore some pride to the battling club and Taylor said it was still a motivating factor. "I'm not worried about being a nuisance," Taylor said of how his side would approach the final rounds. "I want to make sure we keep playing and keep playing with the respect that we deserve, for each other and the club. "Playing with pride, that's what we want to do for the rest of the season." Taylor has already switched some of his focus to next season, having been encouraged by the form of the club's emerging stars including boom half-back Chris Sandow, and young backs Jamie Simpson and Luke Capewell. "We've unearthed some quality players and quality young players and they've gained some great experience over the last few weeks," Taylor said. "They'll get some more over the next few weeks." The Sea Eagles on the other hand are solely focused on 2008 and can reclaim top spot with a win on Sunday. Melbourne went into first in the race for the minor premiership with a 30-6 win over the Sydney Roosters but the Sea Eagles would join their 2007 grand final opponents on 34 competition points by beating Souths. Sunday's match is also a chance for them to rack up some all important for-and-against points, with only one point separating the Sea Eagles and Storm's differential at the moment. Des Hasler's side will be looking to rebound positively from their deflating loss when the top two sides met last week and the Victorian side prevailed 16-10. Neither Manly nor the Rabbitohs have any fresh injury concerns heading into Sunday's match. AAP
We'd better run up a decent score against this lot. I think we are a point ahead of the storm today. Â
