SYDNEY (AP) — South Sydney scrumhalf Chris Sandow landed a 51 meter field goal in the seventh minute of extra time to give the Rabbitohs a 21-20 win over the Sydney Roosters; one of two golden-point wins in the 19th round of Australia's National Rugby League.
Greg Inglis scored a 75th minute try to cap a Souths rally from 20-14 down to 20-20 at fulltime and Sandow settled the latest edition of the strong rivalry with his long-range goal in the 87th minute on Saturday.
Sandow's goal lifted Souths to 11th place on the table, keeping alive playoff hopes. The Roosters fell back to 15th, only two points ahead of last-placed Gold Coast.
Penrith's Luke Walsh also kicked a match-winning field goal in the sixth minute of extra time to lift the Panthers to a 23-22 win over Parramatta. The match had only been forced into golden point overtime when Penrith's Lachlan Coote scored a try after the fulltime siren and Travis Burns converted.
In other matches, first-placed Melbourne beat Canberra 26-0 for its sixth straight win and to become the first team to hold the Raiders scoreless at Canberra Stadium.
Second-placed Manly beat eighth-placed Newcastle 32-10, third-placed Brisbane beat Gold Coast 30-10 while fourth-placed St. George Illawarra will play Cronulla on Monday.
Souths coach John Lang emerged smiling from his team's cliffhanger win, saying he never doubted Sandow would land the winning goal on Saturday.
"We play games where there's a lot of field-goal kicking and I've seen him hit them from halfway plenty of times at training," Lang said. "He will stand there and go 'crack' (at training).
"I knew he could do it but to do it under pressure like that is a different thing. We needed the two points desperately. We had the better of the golden-point period and deserved to get the points."
Roosters coach Brian Smith said the golden point was a "gut-busting" way for any team to lose.
"It reminded me of a field goal for us in an even bigger game last year (the semifinal against Wests Tigers). But to score four tries to three — you don't often do that and lose in modern-day footy."
Penrith won a match of high drama, taking advantage of a regained possession and a time out in the final minute to mount the attack from which center Michael Jennings created Coote's try.
Burns slotted the conversion to level the scores at 22-22 and Walsh landed the winning field goal in extra time after an attempt by Parramatta fullback Luke Burns had shaved the posts.
Eels captain Nathan Hindmarsh was left to mark his 300th NRL game with a narrow defeat.
"Very disappointing, we really needed the two points more than anything," he said. "I was praying (Burns' fieldgoal) was going to go through. It was on line, it just faded to the left right at the end. Again, close enough wasn't good enough."
The New Zealand Warriors beat the troubled Bulldogs 36-12 on Friday to move to sixth place and Wests beat North Queensland 38-18 to stay seventh.
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