Never Say Die: The Rabbitohs of '55

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

"Never Say Die" was already a tag synonymous with South Sydney - but the 1955 Rabbitohs epitomised that sentiment more than any other Souths team, either before or after.

Souths had appeared in every premiership decider between 1950 and 1954, coming away with four titles. Yet halfway through the 1955 season, they were in equal last place, and hopelessly out of form.

In early May, in a non-premiership match, a full-strength Souths team that included captain-coach Jack Rayner as well as Cowie, Purcell, Moir and Churchill, was belted 45-17 by Toowoomba.

In June, the Rabbitohs lost consecutive matches to Manly (14-2, Brookvale), St George (29-11, Kogarah), and Newtown (17-16, Redfern).

While you should never write-off champions, Souths had won just three of their first nine premiership games.

"We just couldn't work it out, why we were going so bad," recalled Rayner.

Knowing they had to win every remaining match to take the title, after the loss to the Bluebags the team held a meeting - where they vowed to Rayner to never lose again that season. To reach the Grand Final, let alone win it, required 10 wins in a row. It seemed impossible.

As events transpired, their next match would be pivotal to achieving their task. Their opponents North Sydney were sitting just behind the premiership leaders, and seemed destined to hold on to 3rd or 4th place in the four-team semi-finals. Played at Redfern Oval, the Rabbitohs blitzed the 'Shoremen' 27-12. The two premiership points that Souths gained, were two that Norths didn't - by August that would be crucial.

Souths then turned-on the power, easily winning their next five matches: 18-10 v Balmain (Leichhardt Oval), 43-9 v Canterbury (Belmore Sports Ground), 37-15 v Parramatta (Cumberland Oval), 22-11 v Easts (SCG), and 28-17 v Wests (Pratten Park).

In that same period Norths had lost two matches. With two rounds remaining, Souths had reached fourth-place, two points ahead of Norths. Still, it seemed unlikely that the Rabbitohs would make the play-offs.

Souths remaining matches were against 3rd-placed Manly, and 2nd-placed St George, while Norths were to play the lowly Parramatta and Wests. A loss by Souths in either match would put them into a play-off for fourth place, a loss in both would result in them missing the finals altogether.

In the early moments of the game against Manly, Souths' Clive Churchill broke his arm in an attempted tackle on Sea Eagles winger George Hugo. Despite his injury he refused to leave the field. Ignoring the pleas of the Souths club doctor at half-time, Churchill returned to the fray and did not reveal to anyone the pain he was in.

But his effort seemed to have been in vain as Manly clung to a 7-4 lead into the final minutes of play. In the dying moments Churchill made a break in the Manly defence that led to Souths lock forward Les 'Chicka' Cowie crashing over for a try just inside the corner post - the 15,000 strong "Redfern roar" erupted with its wild cheers and screams.

Captain Rayner was undecided who to give the conversion attempt to, and Churchill was on the other side of halfway with his body drooping heavily to the left in obvious pain. But despite Churchill not being the team's regular kicker, Rayner called him over to take the conversion.

"I don't know why I gave Churchill the kick," Rayner revealed recently. "That was one of the hardest things that I had to judge on the field at Souths - who was going to kick the goals. We had about 4 or 5 fellas that were all good goal kickers and it's pretty hard. You don't know what to do. Not that your mind's blank. If they've done a lot of work - well you wouldn't expect him to kick a goal. I didn't know Churchill's arm was broken, I just gave him the kick."

Churchill needed another player to place the ball down for him, but in one of the game's most dramatic moments, he sent the ball towards the posts. George Crawford, writing in The Sunday Telegraph the next day, described how the ball "twisted and swerved like a thing alive" before it "dropped over the bar" to give the Rabbitohs the lead.

Manly missed a long-range penalty attempt just on fulltime, and Souths had secured a famous victory. For Churchill though, the season was over.

"They make such a big story about Bob McCarthy's intercept in 1967," says Rayner, "but that goal kick was more important to Souths than anything."

With their new-found confidence, in the final round Souths overran St George 27-17 in the match-of-the-day at the SCG. Norths had duly won their last two matches, but the Rabbitohs had remarkably held fourth-place.

Early in the second-half against Manly in the first semi-final, Souths' defence failed to hold out a converted try, leaving them behind 10-5. Despite scoring less tries than their opponents, a 45m penalty goal landed by Bernie Purcell in the last minutes of the game was enough to snare a 14-12 Rabbitohs' win.

In the Final, Souths again lapsed in defence just after half-time, as St George scored a try to lead 14-9. The Rabbitohs fought back to 14-all with minutes left. The Dragons broke clear, and a last-ditch tackle by Rayner saved a certain try. Purcell then kicked two late penalty goals to give Souths an 18-14 victory.

The Rabbitohs had won 10 games in a row, coming from behind the last 4 victories - could this remarkable run end with the ultimate victory?

For the Grand Final, Souths were to play minor premiers Newtown. "They had tough blokes like Dick Poole and Brian Clay," recalled Rayner.

A win by Souths still seemed unlikely, despite their monumental efforts to reach the decider.

The team was without Greg Hawick, Bob Honeysett and Bob Moon. Churchill had a further x-ray on his arm in a vain hope of proving his fitness, but it had not sufficiently healed.

The Rabbitohs were behind 8-4 at half-time, and the Bluebags looked to be home after taking an 11-7 lead with less than ten minutes remaining.

However, inside the Newtown quarter, Rayner moved into marker at the play-the-ball. As soon as the ball was placed on the ground by the Newtown player, Rayner kicked the ball towards the try line.

The Bluebags' lock Peter Ryan fumbled in the back-play and Rayner got his boot to it a second time. The Rabbitoh's Col Donohoe dived on the loose ball right next to the goal posts. With Purcell's conversion goal Souths held a 12-11 lead.

Newtown's Gordon 'Punchy' Clifford had a late penalty shot from 45m out. Into the wind, Clifford's kick sailed straight towards the posts, and looked to have done the trick for the Bluebags. But the ball suddenly dipped, falling under the cross-bar and into the ingoal.

Souths held the ball for the remaining few tackles and claimed victory. Many non-partisan spectators thought "Souths were lucky" to win.

But, as Tom Goodman wrote in The Sun-Herald the following morning, "Rayner and Donohoe were there to do the right thing, and their combined effort was symbolic of South's 'never say die' attitude in critical situations."

The Rabbitohs premiership win of 1955 must be classed as the most remarkable premiership assault ever.

"South Sydney might not have had 13 champions," said Rayner after the game, "but we had 13 loyal players - that was the big thing."

The South Sydney team that played in the 1955 Grand Final:
D.Murdoch, I.Moir, M.Gallagher, M.Spencer, D.Puren, J.Dougherty, C.Donohoe, L.Cowie, J.Rayner (c), B.Purcell, D.Donoghue, E.Hammerton, N.Nilson.

References:
Grand Finals (Murray Sports Nostalgia Series)
Australian Rugby League's Greatest Games (Murray Sports Nostalgia Series)
Interview with Jack Rayner