Rabbitohs recruit Billy Brittain showed he’s one to watch at Redfern after a strong performance at hooker in South Sydney’s 52-10 win against Riverina on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 24-year-old who hails from Brisbane was instrumental in helping steer the NRL club to a dominant position at Albury, in their first hit-out of the year and impressed the coaches.
“First game and I had a few things that I was working on in the pre-season so I was pretty happy,” Brittain said. “We did have a game plan to go through the middle… I think that’s going to be a big strength of ours this year and I thought our forwards had a really good game.”
Brittain scored a try on the back of good lead-up work from powerhouse props Junior Tatola and Tom Amone who continually created momentum for Souths.
“The big boys, they just get on the back of each other and really get us going forward and it definitely opens it up for the edges. I reckon they played really well,” Brittain said.
Behind NSW and Australian hooker Damien Cook at Souths, Brittain isn’t getting ahead of himself.
“My goal is obviously to play NRL but Cooky’s the Australian hooker, he’s got that spot cemented,” he said.
“But when or if that happens, I just want to be ready so play consistently every week and if I get an opportunity, I just want to be confident in my ability that I am ready for that.”
Brittain praised the effort of the Riverina opposition on Saturday, downplaying the 10 tries to two margin.
“I think everyone felt it early on, the heat was there. But it was a good first hit-out. The scoreboard probably wasn’t a reflection of the opposition. They definitely had a crack. All in all, we were pretty happy with the performance,” he said.
“You’ve got to take into account we’ve been training together full-time since November, and they’re a representative side so I’m not too sure how long they’ve been training together. So we probably had that advantage of training together every day and working in our shapes and structures.
“But the coaching staff were pretty happy. They were probably a bit disappointed with the late tries but all credit to Riverina, it was good for them.
“The try they scored off the kick (from the scrum) that was smart footy from them. We didn’t have a fullback and it was good awareness by them.”
Souths have two more trials – a testimonial for John Sutton against Penrith next weekend before the annual Charity Shield game against St George-Illawarra.
Their 2019 season kicks off against arch rivals the Roosters at the SCG on Friday March 15.
READ MORE: