Rabbitohs 40 Sea Eagles 32

FROM a shared view in the penthouse, Manly collapsed to the outhouse yesterday, falling to a Souths side that confirmed their lackadaisical recent form should not have consigned them to the doghouse.

Ten days after Manly matched Melbourne in a high-quality thriller at Brookvale, the Sea Eagles were lured into a game of football more like a Punch and Judy show, with plenty of soft touches and some defensive efforts that looked like slap and tickle.

Solid players - from both sides - made blindingly stupid errors but the game ran on with an irresistible energy.

It wasn't the energy that left Manly coach Des Hasler looking drained and pained. Put it all down to attitude, with his side unable to replicate anything like last week's effort.

Not that the Melbourne match had any bearing on yesterday's result, claimed Hasler. Not so Taylor, who had fancied his side's chances ever since the battle at Brookvale and could be excused for wondering what might have been for a team that began '08 with seven straight losses.

Except Taylor wasn't. "I don't know if it could have been because we're a new team from halfway through the season," he said. "Our season probably started at the halfway point and we've done OK since then."

The key arrival was half Chris Sandow, whose kicking game kept the initiative with Souths all day yesterday, while young winger Jamie Simpson was in everything.

"We've just got to learn to do it week-in, week-out. We're still a young side," said Taylor.

Even captain Roy Asotasi made a schoolboy blue at the end of the game when a pass bounced off the chest of Manly prop Josh Perry and rolled into Souths' in-goal. Asotasi ignored it. Meanwhile, Perry, wandering through and still embarrassed at his poor effort, put his hand down on the ball before winning a try on the judgement of video ref Steve Clark.

"I just thought it was a knock-on. It was a rookie error," the captain conceded.

Taylor laughed: "I said we were a young team and our captain is making rookie errors so we've got to improve there."

Luckily for Asotasi, Souths were far enough in front to afford the indulgence. But it wasn't always that easy, with both sides trading tries until Souths speedster Nathan Merritt got himself on the end of a John Sutton break and gave his side a 14-10 lead 10 minutes before half-time.

Who needs 10 minutes? Merritt was back in less time than it takes Michael Phelps to swim 200 metres, this time after Sandow bounced out of a silly shoulder charge from Anthony Watmough. Souths went to the sheds 22-10 up.

Taylor lauded the improved attitude of his troops after three soft losses in the last month. But in 20 minutes of sloppy play to open the second half it appeared Souths had lost their way again, as they coughed up the ball and watched their lead be cut, crimped and finally blown away by Manly's third try in. Orford's conversion completed Souths' apparent capitulation, handing Manly a 26-22 lead with 20 minutes left.

But the Rabbitohs weren't finished. Sandow got a clever kick in near the posts for Issac Luke to score. And from the next Souths attack, Merritt had his third from a bomb in very handy position, allowing Luke to extend the Rabbitohs' lead to 34-26.

Asotasi grabbed the last try as the only player following Simpson's chip to get the Rabbitohs - and himself - to the safety of a 40-26 lead before his rookie moment.

"We've lacked intensity all year but we're learning to be a consistent team. We just need to work on getting ourselves into games early, ripping in," explained Asotasi.

"We've got the Raiders, Roosters and Melbourne now and we just want to make sure we're competitive in all those games."