The historic turf of the Sydney Cricket Ground has been witness to many special Rabbitohs moments. We've gone through the vault and picked out our top 6!
Let us know what you think! Email [email protected] and tell us your favouite memories!
6) Rabbitohs vs Dragons 1965 Grand Final
It was possibly the biggest Grand Final of all time with unofficial accounts recording somewhere in the region of 90,000-100,000 fans. The SCG reached its 70,000 capacity two hours before kick-off, there were Rugby League fans perched on the roof and the traffic was so bad Bob McCarthy almost missed the game.
Although Souths lost the clash 12-8, the match signaled the beginning of a new era for the Rabbitohs. Sattler, McCarthy, Simms, Coote and Cleary all established themselves in 1965 and would go on to win four Premierships in the next five years.
5) Rabbitohs vs ‘St George Illawarra’ – Round 4, 1999
It was the very first time we’d clash with the newly-formed St George-Illawarra Dragons and also our very first win against the newly-formed St George-Illawarra Dragons.
Halfback Darrell Trindall played one of the great games of his career to lead Souths to a 25-24 victory over St George Illawarra in a nostalgic return to the Sydney Cricket Ground. Trindall scored two tries in the first half, set up another for centre Jason Nicol and landed a left-footed field goal to put the match beyond the Dragons’ reach. St George Illawarra led 18-8 at halftime, but collapsed alarmingly in humid conditions, committing a mountain of second-half handling errors and missed tackles.
4) John Sutton Breaks All-time Souths Appearance Record – Round 5, 2014
John Sutton celebrated breaking the Rabbitohs all-time appearance record with an emphatic 26-6 victory over the St George Illawarra Dragons at the SCG, in front of 24,368 Members and supporters in the historic clash.
With the perfect stage set in the form of the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, the Rabbitohs turned on a controlled performance to help Sutton celebrate his milestone in style in the Men of League Heritage Round.
3) 1984 Preliminary Final
Few matches though come close to the 1984 Preliminary Minor Semi Final at the SCG in terms of mental and physical toughness. The run in to the game wasn’t any kinder to the Rabbitohs, they had to play a mid-week play-off against Canberra to qualify for the match, as Mark Ellison remembers it - “We’d play on the Sunday, again on the Tuesday night and then again on the Saturday.
Playing a Manly side at the Sydney Cricket Ground, we fell behind 14-0 in the first 10 minutes. The turning point came when Dean Rampling famously called “Henry” as a scrum packed – instigating a wild all-in brawl.
With captain Ziggy Niszczot and hooker Mario Fenech leading the way, Souths clawed their way back to 14-all at half-time before overcoming the Sea Eagles in the second half to record a magnificent 22-18 victory.
2) Nathan Merritt Field Goal – Round 10, 2009
Nathan Merritt struck the first field goal of his career in the 80th minute to hand South Sydney a thrilling 23-22 come-from-behind win over Wests Tigers at the SCG in Round 10 of the 2009 season.
The Rabbitohs scored the final 13 points of the match to fight back from two converted tries down with a quarter of the match remaining, with Merritt's last-minute one-pointer from 30 metres out breaking a 22-22 deadlock in dramatic fashion.
1) 1967 Grand Final
The 1967 Grand Final itself though will forever be remembered for the spectacular intercept try from the Rabbitohs’ 22 year old back rower Bob McCarthy just before half time – the Souths Junior streaking nearly the length of the field to plant the ball over the line to give the Rabbitohs a 10-8 half-time lead.
A great try from a great Souths man – You’ll just have to watch it.
