Saturday, September 15 – ANZ Stadium.

In round 20, the Raiders found themselves in twelfth place on the ladder and their chances of making the finals were slim at best but, five wins from the their final six matches, saw the Raiders secure sixth spot and a home final against the Sharks last week.The Raiders led at halftime 16-6 and despite two early second half tries by the Sharks, the Raiders took advantage of some crucial Sharks mistakes in the final quarter of the match to run in three tries inside the final fifteen minutes to win 34-16.The Rabbitohs finished the season in third spot courtesy of a favourable run into the finals from a draw perspective, where they only faced teams that qualified for this year’s finals on four occasions since Round 13.In each of these four matches, the Rabbits were on the wrong side of the ledger.Last week they had the unenviable task of travelling to Melbourne to take on the Storm in their first final last week. They were never in the hunt and were handed a 24-6 defeat, scoring their only points inside the last ten minutes.

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The Rabbitohs have a solid 9-3 home record this year and will welcome the return to ANZ Stadium. The Rabbitohs will be out to make amends for last week’s performance and their recent record against the Raiders is solid, having won 36-18 in Round 12 of this year and on both occasions the teams met in 2011 and 2010. In each of the above three games, 50 points or more were scored, so it may pay to keep a close eye on the mark set for the Total Match Points Under/Over. The Raiders have continued to step up to the mark in recent weeks and they’ll be full of confidence heading into this clash. The loss of the competition’s top point scorer, Jarrod Croker (fractured Cheekbone) will be a huge loss for the Raiders and a new goal kicker will have to be nominated. Last week’s victory was based on the Canberra Forwards meeting and containing the Sharks park but they will have to step up again against the big South Sydney forwards such as Asotasi, Burgess and Taylor. It’s been a fantastic season (second half of a season to be more precise) with wins over the Broncos and Bulldogs to their credit. Can the Raiders keep the roll going or will Souths, who have the opportunity of being able to right the wrongs from last week, bounce back at home?

SOUTHS SYDNEY 1-12 @