AFTER spending the off-season working on ways of winning with Craig Wing, South Sydney suddenly had to try to figure out how to win without him.
They had done it often enough to make the finals last season, but the Rabbitohs were playing a different ball game then, based heavily on the ability of their defence to protect them against their inability to score points. This season, they planned for Wing to allow them to open up more with the ball, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men … and, now, Rabbits.
The game may have only been a few minutes old, but Souths already looked to be in a bit of trouble before Wing was hurt. Prop Roy Asotasi had come up with a powerhouse first minute, fighting to gain valuable extra metres on the first carry from the kick-off and ending the set with a smashing tackle on Roosters fullback Anthony Minichiello, who had narrowly beaten him to hooker Issac Luke's kick. But then the game turned around off a Souths turnover.
Luke ran out of dummy half, but waited too long to pass to Asotasi and the ball went to ground. The Roosters got an early opportunity to start a set well off their line and finished it by forcing Souths to start right on theirs. Then Wing got hurt, the Roosters scored soon after, and we had one team on a roll and the other wondering how - in the opening game of the season - things could could go so wrong, so quickly.
If the Roosters were any good, then under the circumstances they were going to quickly put a gap between themselves and the Rabbitohs - rocking, as they were, while the opposition was still reeling. And they did that - by keeping the pace of the game up, employing neat switches of play, running second-rower Anthony Tupou off the edge of the ruck at smaller defenders and giving Souths fullback Fetuli Talanoa a workout with the high ball. It all worked, and to make Roosters coach Brad Fittler look even better, his decision to pull second-rower Willie Mason out of the starting side and put him on the bench - starting with Nate Myles instead - worked like a dream. Myles somehow held multiple defenders at bay to reach out and score a try and when Mason came on, in the 23rd minute, he was able to make his customary charges without feeling the pressure of having to drag the Roosters into the game.
Freddie's decision to keep Willie at bay turned out to be inspired, and it wouldn't surprise if it came off the back of a chat with his footballing mentor, Phil Gould. Such a move had the smell of a vintage Gus-like mind game. Keep the big fellow waiting, and by the time you send him on he'll be frothing at the mouth.
But, whichever way it happened, we'll give the credit to Fittler, because in the end it is he who has to make the decisions - and, last night, all of his big moves came off. He began this season like he finished last season - with a win over the Rabbitohs and plenty to be optimistic about.
The Roosters got to a 34-4 lead before winning 34-20. It is always a bit of a dampener to concede a lot of points at the back end of a game like that, but Fittler won't be too hard on his men. They had the game shot to pieces and eased up a little - no big deal. Souths coach Jason Taylor is the one who has got something to worry about.
Taylor can, at least, look to the fact his players never gave up. It was only natural they lost their way after Wing left the field, but the fact they scored the last three tries of the game proved their character. How they adjust to the absence of Wing - after spending so much of their preparation adjusting their style of play to fit around him - will be the test.
