The Illawarra Steelers suffered their second defeat of the 2026 NSW Women’s Premiership, falling 22-12 to the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Collegians Sporting Complex on Saturday.
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After a tight opening stanza, the first points of the game were scored in the 18th minute, after South Sydney five-eighth Luisa Yaranamua scooted from dummy half to put the visitors up 4-0.
The Rabbitohs’ second try came quickly after, with front rower Liaina Dimech crashing through the Steelers’ defence at the line to extend their lead to 10-0 with a successful conversion from halfback Kiara McGregor, all whilst they had a player sitting in the sin bin.
Illawarra soon hit back strongly with Herewaka Pohatu, who played on the wing after Montaya Hudson left the field with a facial injury, scoring off a strong right side shift in the corner in the 27th minute. A successful conversion from Tayleah Handcock brought the score back to 10-6.
Despite a strong defensive effort from both sides, the Rabbitohs would get the jump before half-time, scoring in the 32nd minute through Hana Laufale evading five defenders and putting the Rabbitohs up 14-6 heading into the sheds at the break.
Try Time: Replacement winger Herewaka Pohatu scores the Steelers first try.
The Rabbitohs quickly regained momentum after halftime. Yaranamua scored her second try of the afternoon just five minutes into the second half, again darting from dummy half. With McGregor converting, South Sydney stretched their advantage to 20-6, before the sharp-shooter added a penalty goal to push the lead to 22-6.
The Steelers responded in the 55th minute, with Georgie Barrett breaking the line to set up second-rower Rhian Yeo for Illawarra’s second try, Yeo’s third of the season. Tayleah Handcock’s successful conversion narrowed the margin to 22-12.
Despite sustained pressure in the final fifteen minutes, the Rabbitohs held firm to secure victory.
Post-game, Pohatu said that the focus for next week is staying in the right mindset and tidying up the basics.
“We just need to stay in a cycle mentality and just stay in the grind,” Pohatu said.
“A few times you can see that we sort of slipped out of it, and we just need to show more emotion out there, like we sort of wound a bit down and we played pretty much to their standard out there.
“Courtney [head coach Crawford] says it all the time and we just seem to step away from it, and it just doesn’t do us any good out there.
“They sort of rolled us through the middle out there and then caught us on our edges, or we just slipped off tackles, so we’ve just got to be a bit better there.”
The Steelers’ next match will be at Terry Lamb Complex, Chester Hill against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, who are still chasing their first win of the season.
Words: Harrison Mellare
Photo credit: Denis Ivaneza