Canterbury fans can be proud to watch their club again, Cameron Ciraldo says, after his side responded to their 66-point round-18 shellacking against Newcastle with an upset win against South Sydney.
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The same Bulldogs that were caught cold against the Knights last weekend brought the heat against the Rabbitohs, with five-eighth Matt Burton enjoying new halves partner Toby Sexton's company in a brilliant display.
They had to dig deep late to cling on to their 36-32 win after conceding two tries in two minutes, with head coach Ciraldo saying Canterbury's leaky edge defence still needs much improvement.
But it was the response their fans were so desperately craving, as young winger Blake Wilson starred with a hat-trick, the first three tries of his NRL career.
"I liked how there was a lot more resilience to what we did, a lot more effort and intent," Ciraldo said.
"There's a lot I liked about it, but there's a lot we're going to have to fix up.
"The most important thing today was to get that effort, and get people proud to watch us."
Gun playmaker Burton looked a different weapon alongside midweek recruit Sexton, with the former Gold Coast halfback allowing his five-eighth plenty of space to roam and find two try assists.
"Toby did a lot of the organising and took that pressure off Burto ... really happy with what he did today," Ciraldo said.
"I loved a lot about what Burto did today ... that was his best defensive game and he carried that intent into the way he played the ball."
Missing a host of State of Origin stars including key playmakers Cam Murray and Cody Walker along with the injured Latrell Mitchell, Souths lent on fullback Blake Taaffe in attack.
Taaffe found two slashing tries in a seven-minute second-half patch that got the Rabbitohs back within eight points, while Munro marked his second NRL appearance with another double.
Canterbury's big win was soured by a serious-looking neck injury for prop Ryan Sutton, who was stretchered from the field inside 10 minutes after a shoulder charge that left Rabbitoh Taane Milne sin-binned.
Sutton was taken to hospital as a precaution, but Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou was filthy with the decision to send Milne to the bin.
"Anyone who watches that can clearly see that the injury doesn't come from Taane Milne ... it's accidental contact as he ducks his head," he said.
"But for some reason we get a bloke in the sin bin because a guy stayed down injured.
"We're just finding things to do, finding ways to get people that aren't even on the field to make big decisions.
"We're out there with more than half our (salary) cap missing and we can't get a fair crack."
Australian Associated Press
