South Sydney have held off a fast-finishing Cronulla to claim a 22-18 win to start their NRL season at ANZ Stadium.
In a thrilling finish on Saturday night, the Sharks were denied a try in the second-last minute by a forward pass which would have completed a stunning comeback.
Captain Wade Graham attempted to challenge the call after Josh Morris had crossed, but was correctly told by referee Ben Cummins he was unable to have a forward pass reviewed.
Replays showed the call was the correct one, with the ball from Connor Tracey to Morris going marginally forward.
It came after the Sharks had trailed 22-8 with 18 minutes to go, before launching a comeback through Shaun Johnson and Sione Katoa.
Katoa scored two tries, with the first coming as he ran on to a bullet two-man cut-out ball from Johnson on the right wing.
His second was even better, a sensational acrobatic effort to get the ball down within centimetres of the line after nice set up play by Johnson and Will Kennedy.
The signs were good for the Rabbitohs, even as Latrell Mitchell also played 56 minutes at fullback and tallied 50 metres in four runs.
Their new-look middle passed its first test, holding firm after losing Sam and George Burgess and John Sutton from their pack at the end of last year.
Tevita Tatola was particularly impressive as he ran 177 metres, while he, Tom Burgess and Liam Knight reached almost 300 metres combined in their opening 26-minute stint.
Knight also provided a crunch play late, with a big hit on Graham to force an error on the Sharks’ captain with Cronulla on the attack and hunting a match-winning try.
Adam Reynolds impressed in his maiden showing as captain, scoring Souths’ first when he spotted a gap and came back through the middle.
Winger Campbell Graham scored a crucial try on halftime to extend the Rabbitohs’ lead to 16-8, despite being down a man with James Roberts sin-binned for a professional foul.
And Ethan Lowe scored their other, chasing through on a Cody Walker kick which ricocheted off Johnson to give the Rabbitohs their 22-8 lead early in the second half.
