Sam Burgess has rampaged over Canberra to lead South Sydney to a 42-22 NRL win in Gosford.
Burgess was breathing fire on Saturday after missing the past two weeks due to suspension and looked determined to make up for lost time with a dominant performance in front of 15,134 fans at Central Coast Stadium.
However, Burgess is in danger of missing more football after being put on report for an ugly high shot on Aidan Sezer, which set off a scuffle midway through the second half.
The English enforcer was given a standing ovation by the Rabbitohs faithful as he went off in the 61st minute after running 179m and making two linebreaks.
It was the Rabbitohs’ fourth win from their past five starts and a performance that reinforced that they are top-eight contenders.
Burgess carved up the Raiders’ middle all day and burst through a hole in the 44th minute, with fullback Jack Wighton doing well to stop him in his tracks.
Richie Kennar landed the knockout blow for the Rabbitohs in the 52nd minute to make it 32-12.
And it was Burgess who created the opportunity when he sucked in three defenders and still got an offload away.
After leading 24-12 at halftime, the Rabbitohs iced the game with tries to Kennar and Robert Jennings after Raiders skipper Jarrod Croker was sin-binned.
The Rabbitohs had great contributions all over the park – Cody Walker was once again dominant, Adam Reynolds’ kicking was superb, Tom Burgess charged for 128m and hooker Damien Cook did his NSW aspirations no harm.
Greg Inglis also showed signs he was getting back to his best.
He had has been slow out of the blocks in the first six rounds but hit full flight as he latched on to a wayward Sezer pass to run 80m untouched in the 30th.
Earlier, South Sydney’s left side ran riot in the opening exchanges, running in three tries to make it 16-0 after 16 minutes.
The Rabbitohs were threatening to run away with it but Elliott Whitehead’s try on the siren saw the Raiders trail 24-12 at the break.
The Raiders scored consolation tries through Croker and Whitehead in the second half but had their two-game winning streak snapped.