Souths looking for two straight NRL wins

More settled with combinations starting to click, South Sydney look set to do something they haven’t achieved since early last month.

The reigning NRL premiers sit in fourth place, but go into Saturday night’s clash with Newcastle at ANZ Stadium having not won back-to-back games since round 13.

Since beating the Warriors on June 6, the Rabbitohs have followed a win with a loss.

Coach Michael Maguire claimed he’s not bothered by the stat and has backed what he said was more settled team to get the job done in the round-19 match against the Knights.

“I don’t pay any attention to those sorts of things. It’s about what we’ve got to do this week,” said the Rabbitohs coach.

Free of the injury curse which has plagued their title defence, the Rabbitohs have their big guns back and firing and it’s halves Adam Reynolds and Luke Keary who have the coach excited.

Reynolds, John Sutton and Glenn Stewart are among those Rabbitohs to have spent extended periods on the sideline this year.

The No.7 is looking more like his old self and played a pivotal role in steering the Rabbitohs to victory over St George Illawarra last week.

“Adam is really starting to take control, but that’s off the back of everyone working well together and we have to make sure we do that again this week,” he said.

“It’s a settled team now, we’ve got a lot of our players back after season of various injuries this season.

“Adam and Luke are starting to gel really well together, they’ve had a bit of a disjointed combination throughout the year.”

The Rabbitohs have hooker Issac Luke returning from suspension, while back-rower Kyle Turner could make his NRL comeback from a career-threatening spinal injury suffered in February.

Battling Newcastle come into the game off a terrific 30-2 win over Gold Coast, but face a tough ask against the Rabbitohs with injury clouds over star back Akuila Uate (knee) and Dane Gagai (heart).

Centre Gagai has undergone cardiology tests this week in the hope of playing after he was rushed to hospital at halftime of the win over the Titans due to an irregular heartbeat.

In some good news for the Knights, hooker Adam Clysdale has been named to make his return from a shoulder injury.

“Clydsy probably could have played at a pinch last week, but we thought we’d give him another week,” said coach Rick Stone.

STATS THAT MATTER

– The Knights have scored at least 20 points in their past six matches, but have conceded 23.6 points per game (the second most)

– Greg Inglis has scored four tries in his past four matches against the Knights

– Souths have have won seven of their past 10 games against the Knights, including four straight since 2012.

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