Warriors Maul Rabbitohs

Warriors

Giant Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei bagged a hat-trick as his side all but ended South Sydney's NRL season with a 48-16 mauling at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.

Vatuvei completed his triple with two second-half tries within three minutes as the Warriors ran riot in a nine tries to three thrashing of the injury-ravaged Rabbitohs.

The Warriors led 18-0 after 15 minutes and 24-4 at halftime before Souths showed some signs of a revival, but it was never going to be enough as the Warriors stormed home in front of 11,208 fans.

The Warriors kept their noses ahead of an NRL logjam in the battle for top eight spots with their third straight victory, while Souths have now lost three of their past four and sit four points outside the top eight.

Warriors centre Joel Moon bagged a double, while outstanding five-eighth James Maloney scored one, had a hand in several others and booted six from nine.

Bill Tupou, Shaun Johnson and Pita Godinet scored the visitors' other tries while, for Souths, Dylan Farrell bagged a double and Chris McQueen one try with Chris Sandow kicking two from three.

But it was as good as over by halftime as the equivalent of a first grade pack sitting on the sidelines, including captain Mick Crocker who was ruled out before kick-off, finally caught up big time with Souths.

Tupou turned a half opportunity into four points after just five minutes, grounding the ball millimetres inside the dead ball line from a Maloney cross-field kick.

It might have been a different story for the Rabbitohs if hooker Issac Luke's enterprising attacking move hadn't resulted in an intercept and 90m run to the line by Johnson four minutes later.

But when Vatuvei finished some good lead-up work from Moon in the 15th and Maloney got his own in the 26th after a bust from in-form Feleti Mateo, Souths were staring down the barrel.

A late first half rally brought a try to centre Farrell before the generous Rabbitohs faithful chose to boo off the referees rather than their players.

Souths scored first after the break when McQueen grabbed a John Sutton kick in the 44th minute but were their own worst enemies when Sandow was caught on the last and the Warriors went 95m in the next set for Moon to score and make it 28-10.

Moon grabbed a second seven minutes later and Farrell went in in the 62nd minute, but from there it was embarrassingly all one-way traffic.