The Bulldogs turned in another Jekyll and Hyde performance but this time walked away with the two NRL competition points after coming from behind to beat South Sydney 25-12 at ANZ Stadium.

The Bulldogs looked no chance of breaking their 2008 duck when trailing 12-0 just 20 seconds out from halftime, but three tries sandwiched around the interval had the visitors up 18-12 six minutes after the restart.

From there the Bulldogs renowned defensive wall clicked into gear, at one stage repelling the Rabbitohs for five straight sets as the home side looked for some way back into the match.

The Bulldogs showed them how it was done when Luke Patten raced over for the match-winner on the back of a Daniel Holdsworth inside ball, the second half comeback a complete reversal of their round one capitulation when they surrendered a 20-0 halftime lead to Parramatta.

The loss leaves Souths 0-2 and struggling to put points on the board without injured playmaker Craig Wing; coach Jason Taylor with more than a few headaches as he looks to come up with a winning combination.

Without the injured Sonny Bill Williams the Bulldogs started slowly, Souths capitalising on their dominance in position and possession when debutant Ben Lowe was turned back inside by Ben Rogers for a 6-0 lead after 19 minutes.

The Bulldogs kicked out on the full from the restart but it was a crucial call from the video referee that really hurt them, a knock on against the Bunnies changed to a penalty on review from the man upstairs.

Halfback Eddie Paea sliced between Andrew Ryan and Jarrad Hickey on the next set before crawling over the line for a 12-0 lead, the Bulldogs appearing dead and buried before their stunning form reversal.

It started with winger Matt Utai who took advantage of a poor defensive read from opposite Merrit 20 seconds out from halftime before the pumped up Dogs went over twice in the north western corner after the break via Willie Tonga and Tim Winitana to open the second stanza.

While thrilled with the try-scoring frenzy, Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes credited his side's goal-line defence as the major factor.

"That little period there where we led 18-12 we held them out for four, five, six sets on our line ... that was the turning point the fact they didn't get a result there," said Folkes, who denied there was anything in his halftime address that would have inspired his troops.

"We got some confidence out of it and the momentum sort of shifted after that."

Taylor was left lamenting the absence of Wing, who isn't due back for another three to four months as he recovers from surgery on a dislocated shoulder.

"We're certainly not an 80-minute football team at the moment, which is our biggest concern and I don't think we're a 40-minute (side) either," Taylor said.

"We're doing it in patches but there's just not enough consistency in what we're doing.

"We had some success with some things in the first half ... (but) we'd decide that 'yeah we've seen that and yeah it worked, but what about we try a few other things'.

"There's no doubt that's why we brought Craig Wing to the club to get control of some of that stuff - he's not there so we need to get that sorted out really quickly because they're the same issues we had last year."

The Bunnies reported no major injury concerns while Utai did not return for the second half after suffering a blow to the sternum in the opening period.

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