[Photo Credit: NRL]

A double to tryscoring machine Alex Johnston helped the Rabbitohs to an unconvincing 26-14 win over the Dragons in Cairns.

Johnston now has 21 tries for the season and 187 for his career, just 25 behind the game’s all-time leading tryscorer Ken Irvine on 212.

The day got off to a bad start for Souths when Jed Cartwright hurt his back in the warm-up and was a late scratching but they recovered quickly to grab first points when Johnston finished off some slick passing from Cameron Murray, Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell.

When Tyrell Sloan put a line dropout out on the full in the 18th minute the Rabbitohs took the chance to make the lead 8-0 with a Mitchell penalty goal.

The Rabbitohs then came up with a blunder of their own when they let the kick-off go into touch and the Red V made them pay when Moses Suli broke the line and found Mikaele Ravalawa in support for his 19th try of the season.

Souths had a number of chances to extend their lead but Mitchell came up with a forward pass and then a grubber kick that went dead as the red and green struggled to find their rhythm.

A dropped ball by Lachlan Ilias in the final minute of the half gave the Dragons great field position but a loose pass meant the opportunity came to nothing.

With the sides making 11 errors between them in the opening 40 minutes and only two tries scored, the big crowd in Cairns were made to wait only XXXX minutes after the break for the Rabbitohs capitalising on a Mat Feagai error to score from the scrumbase through Campbell Graham.

A mistake by Siliva Havili straight from the kick-off proved disastrous for Souths as a pinpoint grubber by Talatau Amone was snaffled by Ben Hunt and the Dragons were back within four.

Six minutes later the Rabbitohs’ big guns came to the party when Mitchell flew high to pull down a bomb before delivering a magical offload for Walker to score. Mitchell’s conversion made it 20-10.

With 14 minutes to play the Dragons turned up the heat with a try to Sloan from a pinpoint Hunt grubber. The conversion went wide and Souths led 20-14.

A long range try from the Rabbitohs in the 72nd minute proved the killer blow as Johnston handled twice in the movement before dotting down for his second of the day.

The Rabbitohs’ 12th win of the season lifts them to 28 competition points and into the top eight ahead of a clash with the Knights in Round 25 and a guaranteed two points from a bye in Round 26.

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