I'm hoping we hold our own early on - conservative football, ball security, waiting for attacking opportunities to come in their half. The more adventurous stuff should come after laying a platform.
. Souths are the master of the surrender tackle, setting up the quick play the ball, they get a roll on through the middle, walk off the mark, wrestle the marker and generally do everything they can to make the ruck look disorderly - and then wait for the inevitable penalty that comes from the spooked pinky when the legions of souths rednecks screaming for a penalty at every play the ball reaches a critical mass.
It only takes two or three piggy back penalties to influence the whole tenor of a game - . Suddenly we're defending repeat sets on our line and they get the inevitable barge over try. Throw in one or two of our regular spilt balls, and some poor kicks and you get a game played in our quarter.
Souths don't win game with creativity and finesse, they play football by formula and percentages. Their whole game is built around ruck domination. Most of their tries are the inevitable outcome of pure physics rather than skill. This is one of the many reasons why it'd be a shame if they won the comp.
We have to hold them in the centre and not allow them to bully and bluster their way through. If we can do that, our backs might prove the difference. Easier said than done.
There's nothing we can do about the muppets in pink though, except maybe hope that Hayne still feels a pang of guilt and shame for the drubbing he gave us last October.
