South Sydney say they have put last week’s morale-sapping NRL finals loss to Melbourne behind them and are zeroing in on the club’s first September win in 25 years.
The Rabbitohs have acknowledged they were simply not up to the standard Melbourne set last weekend in winning the qualifying final 24-6 and need to produce a much better brand of football if they are to overcome an in-form Canberra.
Fullback Greg Inglis, a grand final winner with Melbourne, declared on Wednesday the Rabbitohs will be ready for the pressure cooker atmosphere of the sudden-death semi-final at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
“We see last week as a failure, we didn’t turn up and Melbourne did,” Inglis said.
“We have moved on from the Melbourne game and are concentrating on what is ahead of us now.
“We are very confident in ourselves. We know what’s at stake and have to go out there and do the best we can.
“We didn’t play our best game down there, Melbourne played well, we have to take that on board.
“It wasn’t stage fright, we just didn’t turn up.”
Inglis said the Rabbitohs owe it to their legion of fans to record the club’s first finals win since 1987.
“These are exciting times for the club,” he said.
“It’s important everyone has done their homework this week.
“Everyone around the area is excited, it’s been like that all year and they are right behind us.”
English front-rower Sam Burgess admitted the season would be seen as a failure if Souths were bundled out of the finals with successive losses.
“I’m not thinking that way but it would not be the way we want to finish the season,” he said.
“It is knockout time and we are looking forward to it.
“Canberra have been in some great form, we have a great challenge ahead of us.
“We have got a lot of work to do.
“We have put last week behind us. The best thing we can do is learn our lesson and put a better performance on the field this weekend.”