Wayne Bennett Unloads On 'Awful' South Sydney Rabbitohs In Very Grumpy Press Conference

Wayne Bennett is notoriously moody and hard to please.

And last night was no different.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs head coach blasted his own side following their 26-18 loss at the hands of the Melbourne Storm in the opening game of the NRL season.

Reigning premiers the Storm sent a stern message to the rest of the competition by putting 22 points past Bennett's boys within the first 30 minutes.

And while his side somewhat avoided an embarrassing defeat by clawing back the score late on, the team's overall performance came under fire from the man in charge of them.

"Well that first half was awful," Bennett said in his post-match press conference.

"After that it was just doing the best you can.

"We never gave ourselves a chance. Two weeks ago we didn't make a handling error in a half and we come out tonight and we were full of errors defensively and handling.

"So it comes back to attitude and it wasn't there, was it?"

And while he acknowledged that Melbourne were by far the better side on the night, Bennett admitted that his Bunnies side was there for the taking.

"Melbourne were good and they always are and it's a credit to the way they play and they wanted it more than we did," he added.

"There could have been a bit of hype (around South Sydney), but there will be no hype around them today now so that will be good.

"We had to do something so I was pleased we played well for 30 minutes.

"But then we just self-destructed with 10 minutes to go and did all the stupid things again.

"There is probably part of the equation Benji Marshall and Jai Arrow playing their first games for South Sydney and wanting to impress everybody and there were a whole lot of other guys that have played a lot of games for South Sydney and they were hoping we could get an easy night."

Arms folded and starring deep into the souls of the member of the media asking the questions, Bennett didn't look best pleased.

But don't be mistaken, under his elite guidance the Bunnies will be hoping to challenge for a Premiership this season - even if they were totally outclassed in their opening game.

Topics: Wayne Bennett, nrl news, Melbourne Storm, Rugby League, nrl, Australia

Max Sherry

Max Sherry is a journalist for SPORTbible Australia. After migrating Down Under from London as a teenager, he instantly fell in love with Aussie sport and its culture. From NRL to AFL, cricket to rugby — you name it, Max watches it (with a beer in hand, of course). During his time at Fox Sports, he worked in the football department covering the Premier League, A-League, Socceroos and Matildas. Born a stone's throw away from West Ham's training ground, Max is obviously a die-hard Liverpool fan.

@maxysherry