The Rabbitohs led 12-2 early before a burst of three converted tries by Canberra gave them a 20-12 lead with 20 minutes remaining.

South Sydney though held their nerve and evened the scores through Owen Craigie, before Andrew King scored the matchwinner ten minutes from full time.

The narrow victory is Souths second over the Raiders this season, and stretches the Raiders losing streak at Aussie Stadium to 11 matches since 1995.

Canberra took the early 2-0 lead with a penalty goal to fullback Phil Graham before Souths struck for the game’s first try in the eighth minute.

After muscling to within sight of the tryline, Rabbitohs captain Andrew Hart smashed trough some poor defence by Raiders prop Michael Hodgson and scored underneath the posts. Blaine Stanley added the extras, putting Souths up 6-2.

In the 16th minute Souths again got within a metre of the tryline courtesy of a bust by Wade McKinnon, but in stopping the scoring movement by the Rabboths Graham fouled halfback Stanley and was given ten minutes in the sin bin by referee Sean Hampstead.

Canberra though coped well with being a man down: good tactical kicking from halves McLinden and Finch forced three consecutive sets of six near Souths line.

After returning to the field though Graham and winger Michael Robertson failed to diffuse a bomb from Stanley, the ball going back into the Raiders in-goal where it was dived on by Rabbitohs winger Brent Grose.

Video referee Phil Cooley had no trouble with Gross’ grounding, the former Sharks try lifting Souths to a handy 12-2 advantage after half an hour.

With just ten seconds left on the clock before halftime the Raiders gained a reprieve through Finch. Souths were in danger of scoring their third try but the halfback scooped up an errant pass and outpaced the defence to run eighty metres and score a vital try for Canberra.

The Raiders continued their revival after the break, a knock on from Souths winger Nathan Merritt near his own line led to a try on the next set of six by Alan Tongue.

Graham took the extra two points on offer giving Canberra the lead at 14-12 after 47 minutes, which they extended to eight points straight after the Tongue try.

Finch busted a gap through the Rabbitohs on the fringe of the ruck and was able to offload to captain Simon Woolford, who in turn found Graham in support for another Raiders try under the posts. The busy fullback again added the extras, Canberra now leading by 20-12.

Souths were finding it hard to roll forward like they did in the first half, with poor ball control hampering their efforts to build up any sustained attack on the Raiders line.

But Russell Richardson, who looked dangerous every time Souths sent the ball wide on the left, found himself in the clear on the Raiders thirty metre line and avoided the cover defence to score a well deserved try.

Owen Craigie stepped up to take the kick from a difficult angle but didn’t come close to piercing the uprights, Richardson’s four pointer pulling Souths back to within a converted try of Canberra.

Soon after the scores were level when Souths fullback McKinnon regathered a Stanley grubber kick and put Craigie over in the corner. Stanley this time took the difficult kick but the result was the same, Souths and Canberra now even at 20-all.

Souths had quality field position when they needed it the most, and ten minutes from time three consecutive sets of six resulted in a try to centre Andrew King which was converted by Stanley.

King’s four pointer proved to be the matchwinner, the Rabbioths having to work hard for the 26-20 win.