3 minute read

Since South Sydney cleaned up their error count, their attack has skyrocketed over the past four NRL rounds.

South Sydney have been their own worst enemy this NRL season but a decrease in errors has them playing their most consistent football over the past month.

For the past four weeks Souths have averaged just 10 errors per game - compared to an average of 12 across their opening 11 games.

And, not surprisingly, their attack has skyrocketed.

Over the past month Souths have notched up 24 tries - as opposed to 36 tries in their first 11 rounds.

"As a team we're heading in the right direction now; at the start we made it hard for ourselves, we were dropping the ball too much and having to defend and didn't have any energy to attack," hooker Damien Cook said.

"We're learning to do the simple things right and we're seeing much better stuff in attack.

"We know if we get enough shots in attack we're going to score enough points."

Since the league resumption, the Rabbitohs were expected to benefit most from rule changes around the ruck with the likes of Cook running at tired forwards.

However, the State of Origin dummy-half said it has taken time for the Bunnies to fire because their errors were so high.

Big losses to the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne showed just how far they had to go to compete with the top sides.

"A few teams got the jump on everyone. For us, we made it so hard for ourselves," Cook said.

"We were giving away penalties in their yardage, allowing teams out of their own end so easy, and then we were making so many mistakes dropping the ball coming out of our own 50.

"We were putting ourselves under so much pressure and making it so much harder, but we were still in those games.

"I think we've learnt now how important it is to do the little things right and now we're seeing the rewards."

Thursday night's clash with Parramatta at Bankwest Stadium is the first of three games against top four sides as Souths run into the finals.

"It's a great chance for us to see where we're at as a team. We had a good win (against Manly) but this will be a very different game," Cook said.