An ugly brawl in the Accor Stadium stands between Roosters and South Sydney fans has been captured on video.
In the vision, security attempt to handle the situation as a flurry of punches are exchanged between two groups of 10-plus people who had turned up to watch the thrilling clash between the fierce rivals.
A Venues NSW spokesperson issued a statement after the Friday night incident.
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“During the Rabbitohs-Roosters match, an altercation between two groups of males took place during the second half,” the spokesperson said.
“Police and security responded and, ultimately, two groups of 11 males were evicted via different stadium gates. No medical assistance was required and no injuries were reported.
“NSW Police and Venues NSW are reviewing the incident to identify the instigators. Any offenders will be dealt with by police and face bans from attending future events.
“Venues NSW has a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour and we have in place strong processes to identify, respond to and resolve incidents.”
The match was tense as witnessed the stunning return of Latrell Mitchell.
Mitchell spearheaded the injury-ravaged South Sydney to a nail-biting 20-14.
After the match Wayne Bennett hailed it as one of the proudest victories of his 48-year coaching career.
In his first game since last July, Mitchell stood tall to drag a depleted Rabbitohs side off the canvas and snatch a famous win at Accor Stadium.
Souths played the final 30 minutes with just 14 fit players after five-eighth Cody Walker, halfback Jamie Humphreys and winger Mikaele Ravalawa hobbled off with hamstring issues.
But in front of a crowd of 22,114 - and as his Bunnies trailed 14-8 with little more than a quarter of an hour left - Mitchell rose to the occasion against his former club.
An audacious goalline drop-out from Mitchell bounced in Souths’ favour and led to Jye Gray’s try under the posts, which made it 14-14 in the 64th minute.
Mitchell, filling in at five-eighth after being named to start at centre, then produced the play of the game to condemn the Roosters to a 1-4 start.
Rather than set up for a field goal attempt with 10 minutes left, he ran to the left and hit winger Isaiah Tass with a perfect cut-out ball that zipped past three Roosters players.
Tass tip-toed down the touchline to score and Mitchell converted to seal a Souths win that gives his side a 4-1 start under returning supercoach Bennett.
“He had to do something, he was kind of social loafing out there,” Bennett said of Mitchell.
“He was good, he did (his job), being a superstar.
“It’s going to take him a while, he’s been out of football for a long time and there are guys who are four or five weeks in front of him.
“Each week he’ll get better now.”
The gutsy nature of the win led Bennett to rank the victory as one of the proudest of his decorated career that spans more than 1000 games across NRL, Test football and State of Origin.
“In my coaching career, it is in the grand final,” Bennett said.
“To overcome what they overcome tonight, it was pretty special.”
- With AAP
