Latrell Mitchell’s ‘scary’ masterclass in victory over Canterbury Bulldogs

Or Sydney Olympic Park, rather, which is where a fired up Latrell Mitchell continued to put South Sydney on his back by leading them to a tense 36-28 victory over Canterbury.

For the opening hour of the contest, an angry Mitchell had picked fights with NSW State of Origin centre Matt Burton, and even good mate Josh Addo-Carr.

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But then in the final 20 minutes, with the game on the line, Mitchell stepped up.

“We needed him to,” Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou said.

“With no (Cameron Murray) and (Damien Cook), we needed Latrell and Cody (Walker) to stand up when we were behind.

“(Mitchell) was the bloke pushing through that middle third, they both come up with some pretty big plays there to set the tries up.

“Again, that’s what you want from your leaders.

“I spoke to them through the week that there’s times when in a season those guys need to stand up, they’ve been doing that over the past month.

“And if they keep doing that, we’ll be in a good place come finals.”

Twice Canterbury thought they had the two points in the bag.

First it was when, with scores locked at 16-all, the Bulldogs went 90 metres through a Declan Casey line break that ended in Jake Averillo scoring his sixth in four games.

Enter Mitchell’s first piece of magic.

A bullocking individual run that left four defenders in his wake in the 61st minute, including a stiff-arm on Addo-Carr, that stunned the crowd of 19,126.

Canterbury responded with another long-range pearler, this time Burton putting Corey Waddell away down the left and ending in Paul Vaughan planting under the posts.

That ended in Cody Walker reprimanded by the referee for agitating Kyle Flanagan post-try.

But it mattered little to both Walker and Mitchell, who channelled their aggression and combined to put Tevita Tatola over four minutes later to level the contest.

It was then only fitting then that Mitchell set up Alex Johnston for the go-ahead try with a cutout pass, which Johnston followed up by completing his hat trick in a blistering finish.

In a week where NSW were criticised for lacking passion in their Origin defeat, it felt like the angrier Mitchell got – twice he gave Burton a gobful – the better he became.

And it should send shivers to the rest of the competition.

“That is scary. That is intimidating,” champion halfback Cooper Cronk said on Fox Sports.

“He went away for 12 weeks, got his body right and his mind right. I’ve played with and against Latrell and I’ve never seen him so committed, so dialled in.

“He literally wants to throw South Sydney on his back and it’s a scary sign for the rest of the competition because that and what he’s done the last two weeks, that makes South Sydney scary towards the back end of this season.

“You talk about Tom Trbojevic … he’s arguably been the best player on the field in these three games back. In terms of what South Sydney can do in the finals, absolutely he can have an impact.”

Mitchell finished the night with a remarkable statline that included 119 metres carried, one try, four goals, 12 points, five tackle busts, three offloads and three try assists.

And Johnston, playing in his first game back from a quad injury, now has 19 tries in 16 games to remain the league’s leading tryscorer.

More impressive was that South Sydney did it all without two of their best in NSW duo Cameron Murray and Damien Cook, who were both rested after Origin III.

The win – the Rabbitohs’ fifth in six games – consolidates their grip on seventh spot.

Ilias Touch

The Rabbitohs were wearing black armbands to honour the passing of Lachlan Ilias’ grandfather Spyros, so it was fitting their No. 7 opened the scoring with an individual effort.

Forced to run after being rushed by Tevita Pangai Junior, Ilias stepped off his left then grubbered ahead for himself to give his team the early lead.

The Bulldogs responded with back-to-back tries to Braidon Burns and Casey on either edge, but Ilias was again involved in South Sydney’s second.

The young playmaker put Keaon Koloamatangi through a hole and produced a superb one-handed offload for Walker to put his team back in front.

Having endured a tough month that included being hooked in Wollongong and knocked out in Newcastle, Ilias is another enjoying the benefits of Mitchell’s return.

Bulldogs Worries

Addo-Carr was taken from the field midway through the second half due to a glute injury, which he appeared to have suffered when trying to support a runaway Casey.

Second-rower Raymond Faitala-Mariner, who was one of the Bulldogs’ best in the defeat, was also put on report for suspected hip drop.

The Bulldogs remain rooted near the bottom of the ladder in 14th spot.

“The way we improved in the second half with a little bit of ball movement, to just move Souths around, which caused them a little bit of trouble,” interim coach Mick Potter said.

“I was happy with that. We did improve our defence a little bit in patches. But the game’s 80 minutes. We’ve got to be able to be resilient.”

— NCA NewsWire

Originally published as Latrell Mitchell’s ‘scary’ masterclass in victory over Canterbury Bulldogs