Saturday’s NRL 2018 Round 24 match is between Canberra Raiders and South Sydney Rabbitohs. The opening kick is set to commence at 15:00 local time with the game to be played at GIO Stadium, Canberra. The away team South Sydney Rabbitohs are the favourites for the match.

View our preview and teams for the game between Canberra Raiders and South Sydney Rabbitohs.

When: 15:00 | Saturday 25/08/2018

Where: GIO Stadium, Canberra

Preview:

Can the green machine take down the two competition leaders?

I feel last week’s display would have taken too much out of them to back it up again.

They certainly could well do however.

The Bunnies have had their slide and will be looking to mount a charge into September.

One problem they have is the unpredictability of the Raiders.

They have nothing to lose and with players like Jordan Rapana and company, they’ll pose a real threat.

A welcome addition for the Rabbitohs will be big Greg Inglis.

His inclusion will give the whole team confidence and I expect them to respond accordingly.

Look for the Raiders to run the big Raiders around and they are so good at swinging the ball from side to side.

KEY BATTLE: Burgess Brothers v Shannon Boyd, Josh Papalii, Junior Paulo

The battle I’m most looking forward to is the land of the giants going at it.

The winner of this will be the winning team.

The Verdict

Souths to bounce back.

The Rabbitohs have a 12-9 (57.1 percent) line record in games playing during August since 2014.

Unibet Odds:

Canberra $2.30

South Sydney $1.62

Odds:

Tip: South Sydney Rabbitohs at $1.54

Value Tip: First Try Scorer: Campbell Grahame at $11.00

More Info:

Teams:

Canberra Raiders:

1. Brad Abbey 2. Nick Cotric 3. Michael Oldfield 4. Joey Leilua 5. Jordan Rapana 6. Blake Austin 7. Sam Williams 8. Dunamis Lui 9. Josh Hodgson (C) 10. Shannon Boyd 11. Sia Soliola 12. Elliott Whitehead 13. Josh Papalii

Interchange: 14. Emre Guler 15. Junior Paulo 16. Siliva Havili 17. Luke Bateman

Reserves: 18. Jack Murchie 19. Liam Knight 20. Makahesi Makatoa 21. Aidan Sezer.

South Sydney Rabbitohs:

1. Alex Johnston 2. Campbell Graham 3. Greg Inglis 4. Dane Gagai 5. Hymel Hunt 6. Cody Walker 7. Adam Reynolds 8. Thomas Burgess 9. Damien Cook 10. George Burgess 11. John Sutton 12. Angus Crichton 13. Sam Burgess

Interchange: 14. Braidon Burns 15. Cameron Murray 16. Jason Clark 17. Junior Tatola

Reserves: 18. Richard Kennar 19. Tyrell Fuimaono 20. Dean Britt 21. Mawene Hiroti.

NRL News:

It’s the unsettling question posed by South Sydney coach Anthony Seibold which lit a fire under his players after last week’s NRL defeat to Brisbane.

Despite going into the match with plenty on the line, the Rabbitohs blew an opportunity to move back into top spot after being trampled by a fired-up Broncos outfit.

In the sheds afterwards, Seibold began the post-mortem by asking his why their opposition wanted it more, before putting a spotlight on his personnel’s desire.

Hooker Damien Cook said while it was uncomfortable to hear their coach pose the question, it’s one they needed to hear.

“That’s what Seibs said – for some reason they wanted it more and he asked why,” Cook told AAP.

“That’s the question he asked us, why did they want it more?

“We had a lot on the line too, we want the top four, we want the minor premiership as well.

“That was a tough question he asked and none of us liked to hear that.

“It’s a hard one to answer and the only way to answer it is come out the next week and just turn it around.”

Instead of going clear at the top of the leaderboard, the Rabbitohs enter the penultimate round of the regular season equal with Melbourne and the Sydney Roosters on 32 points, but third on points differential.

So it begs the question: How can they escape the rut which has seen them drop their last two games?

A relaxed Cook said their outstanding season, in which they have punched well above expectation, was built on the areas which often go unappreciated.

For all the talk about Cook’s explosive brilliance out of dummy-half, the return to form of the Burgess brothers and the side’s lethal left edge, the No.9 said there was a foundation of fundamental effort areas.

And for that reason, Cook says the Bunnies aren’t hitting the panic button ahead of Saturday’s clash with the Raiders in Canberra.

“There’s no need to think we’re in a crisis, we’re sitting in a good position,” he said.

“When we don’t play our best footy, we have our effort areas to fall back on.

“And that’s where we let ourselves down: just a bit of discipline, holding the ball and a few areas like our kick-chase and kick pressure and things like that.

“That’s the things that probably dropped off and we know we need to make sure that’s there on the weekend.”