Taylor confident Broncos can help Souths - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Taylor confident Broncos can help Souths

By Ben Horne 30/08/2010 06:32:34 PM Comments (0)

South Sydney tearaway Dave Taylor is confident his old mates at Brisbane can overcome mounting odds to beat Canberra on Friday night and give his Rabbitohs a shot at the NRL finals.

The Broncos are likely to be without halves Darren Lockyer and Peter Wallace and possibly key forward Sam Thaiday for their do or die clash at Suncorp Stadium, but Taylor is still predicting his former team-mates will pull off a mini-miracle against the high-flying Raiders.

If Brisbane can win by more than 14 points they will put themselves in the box seat for an 18th consecutive finals berth, but indirectly they'll also keep alive the hopes of Souths.

Should the Broncos topple the Raiders, the Rabbitohs, who have a far healthier for and against, can then steal their spot by beating St George Illawarra on Sunday night.

Taylor helped propel the Broncos deep into last year's finals, and he believes Brisbane's champion qualities will give him a chance to instigate the Rabbitohs premiership challenge.

"I reckon the boys can get up," Taylor told AAP.

"It'd be hard to write them off they're a wonderful team. I don't know if Darren Lockyer is in or out. They've been struggling a little bit but I think even with his absence they can overcome that and play some good football."

Taylor said he'll resist the temptation to text his old buddies this week and won't even watch the match.

"I'll just let them be I reckon," he said.

"I won't watch, I'll just lay back and find out the score on Sunday.

"It's a real weird place to be in, we've just got to wait on the outcome of a few teams and hopefully a lot of luck can go our way."

After a month out with a broken collar bone, Taylor was back to his rampaging best against Souths in their comfortable win over Parramatta last Friday.

Taylor says he's determined for another crack at finals football and believes Souths are good enough to make the most of any opportunity this weekend might give them.

"We've got a wonderful team and it's definitely a side that can produce magic at times, we just need to play for the full 80 minutes," he said.

"Any team can do damage in the finals, it's just a matter of getting to the finals.

"I'm just going to go out there and play football, I'm not going to try and do anything fancy, just play my own game and then whatever happens happens."

South Sydney beat St George Illawarra towards the end of last season and many believe the Bunnies were the better side a few weeks ago when the Dragons escaped with a narrow win.

If the Broncos win and/or Canterbury defeat Manly, Souths can scrape into the eight with victory over St George Illawarra at WIN Jubilee Oval on Sunday night.

But skipper Roy Asotasi says the Rabbitohs are under no illusions about the difficulty of a clash with the minor premiers.

"Sunday is a real test for us, they're looking to build some momentum going into the finals and for us it's do or die regardless of the situation," he said.

"The Dragons did well up in Newcastle and that's pretty tough and they're looking to obviously get rid of that chokers tag.

"We understood the task of getting into the top eight is the hardest of all. Once you get into the finals it's a whole new ball game, everyone's in with a shot."

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