South Sydney overcame the loss of halfback Adam Reynolds to further their favouritism for back-to-back premierships after coming from behind to beat Sydney Roosters in an epic battle at ANZ Stadium.
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Reynolds returned to the field after undergoing a first half concussion test but the Rabbitohs lost their way in his absence and had to dig deep to snatch a 34-26 victory after surrendering an early lead.
Before Reynolds came from the field, the Rabbitohs were comfortably in control of the match and appeared set to continue their devastating start to the season in which they had won the NRL Nines in Auckland and World Club Challenge in St Helens, retained the Charity Shield and thrashed Brisbane 36-6 in the NRL's opening premiership match at Suncorp Stadium.
A try to centre Dylan Walker, which featured five-eighth Luke Keary and secondrower John Sutton, and a 109 metre effort finished by Alex Johnston after Greg Inglis fielded a Mitchell Pearce kick in-goal and beat three defenders before sending his winger racing away, gave Souths a 12-0 lead after just 13 minutes.
But the departure of Reynolds in the 18th minute, after getting his head in the wrong place while attempting to tackle Roosters secondrower Aiden Guerra, coincided with a massive shift in momentum as the game swung the way of the visitors.
By the time Reynolds returned to the field, Souths trailled 16-12 after the Roosters scored three tries in seven minutes - all of them down the side of the field where the Rabbitohs halfback would have been defending.
Daniel Tupou crossed in the 20th minute after fullback Roger Tuivasa-Scheck raced down the left side and put his winger over. And the NSW and Australian representative was involved in the next try five minutes later to centre Michael Jennings after fielding a towering James Maloney bomb that Souths winger Joel Reddy had allowed to bounce.
The Roosters then took the lead in the 28th minute after Rabbitohs hooker Issac Luke lost the ball in a tackle by Maloney while running from dummy and Jennings swooped before racing 40 metres to score and put his side ahead 16-12.
Reynolds returned the following minute to a huge cheer from the 27,289 crowd. But if Souths fans thought he was going to immediately swing the game back the way of the premiers, they were mistaken.
Instead, Reynolds' first kick was into the back of a team-mate after running the ball and almost being caught, and his second went dead.
Had Shaun Kenny-Dowall not lost the ball over the tryline in the 35th minute, the Roosters could have led by more.
Another Reynolds mis-kick after half-time - this time putting the ball out on the full - led to a Dylan Napa try in the 44th minute and Souths were suddenly staring down the barrell of their first defeat since round 26 against the Roosters last year.
But George Burgess got the Rabbitohs back in the game after the English prop swivelled out of a tackle and dived at the line.
After landing the conversion, Reynolds suddenly seemed to regain his confidence and compusure and a 40:20 kick gave Burgess an opportunity to attempt to score again in similar fashion, but he lost the ball short of the tryline.
A controversial penalty against the Rabbitohs for driving Tupou into his in-goal led to a try at the opposite end of the field for Kenny-Dowall but Souths finished too strong through tries to Johnson, Reddy and Luke.
Five-eighth Luke Keary was heavily involved in the first two tries, making a break before drawing Tuivasa-Scheck and putting Johnson over, and then jinking and stepping before linking with Burgess and Reynolds, who pushed off Jennings and Jared Warea-Hargreaves, to create an overlap for Reddy.
Luke secured the win when he dived over from dummy half in the final minute of the match.