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Latrell Mitchell continues barnstorming form in NRL as Mitchell Moses crashes back to earth

The Souths fullback had another blinder, but it wasn't so good for his NSW State of Origin teammate.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·4-min read

Latrell Mitchell had another blinder as the Rabbitohs won their fifth match on the trot on Thursday night, but NSW teammate Mitchell Moses had a shocker. South Sydney continued their stunning surge under interim coach Ben Hornby, beating the Eels 32-16 and moving just two points outside the top eight on the live NRL ladder.

Mitchell was the star of the show once again, continuing a brilliant patch of form since returning from his suspension earlier this season. On Thursday night he scored a try and set up two others, producing a line-break and three line-break assists.

Latrell Mitchell and Mitchell Moses.
Latrell Mitchell had another blinder, but Mitchell Moses had a shocker. Image: AAP/Fox League

He also ran for 126 metres and broke five tackles, producing a committed and involved effort against the hapless Eels. It continued a stunning resurgence for the much-maligned fullback, who many wrote-off at the start of the season during a tumultuous time on and off the field.

"Latrell was great today and Cody (Walker) had some great plays," Hornby said after the game. "I could name the whole team to be fair, they're all playing well and their effort was great, I couldn't be happier. The spine has been better as a group, our attack has been a bit of work in process and hopefully Jack can continue to show what a great player he is."

Unfortunately it wasn't such a happy night for Mitchell's State of Origin teammate Moses, who has crashed back to earth since starring for NSW in Game 2 last week. Moses was absolutely superb in Origin 2 at the MCG, and produced another good performance for the Eels last weekend.

But he had a shocker on Thursday night and never managed to hit his stride against Souths. His nightmare was capped off when he was sin-binned in the dying stages for a blatant professional foul.

Moses refused to let Jai Arrow play the ball, and appeared as though he wanted to stop the play so the Eels could challenge a previous decision. But the NRL outlawed players doing that in recent years, and Moses was quickly sent for 10 minutes in the bin.

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The star halfback is growing increasingly frustrated with the lowly Eels, and gave his teammates a spray last weekend. Moses and his teammates are said to be growing tired of not knowing who their head coach will be in 2025.

"He's frustrated at the moment, he's frustrated with our performance and it probably all boiled over for him," interim coach Trent Barrett said of Moses. The Eels are now bottom on the live ladder - behind Wests Tigers on points differential.

Mitchell Moses, pictured here in Parramatta's loss to Souths.
Mitchell Moses was sin-binned to cap off a horror night for Parramatta against Souths. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

"We hurt ourselves on that one, we were trying to play too pretty at times," said Barrett, who revealed Junior Paulo would head for scans on a foot injury. "We were too sideways and we didn't handle the conditions right.

"You won't score pretty tries in the wet. The tries that you're going to score off a kick or a drop or by playing through teams, they're still worth four points, they don't have to be beautiful and we were probably guilty of that."

Paulo limped off the field midway through the first half and didn't return. "It doesn't look great," Barrett said. "We're not too sure (what he's done) but it's not great."

with AAP