| 2008 South Sydney Rabbitohs season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NRL Rank | First Grade | |||
| Play-off result | Missed the Finals | |||
| 2008 record | Wins: 8; Losses: 16 | |||
| Team information | ||||
| CEO | Shane Richardson | |||
| Coach | Jason Taylor | |||
| Captain | ||||
| Stadium | ANZ Stadium | |||
| Top scorers | ||||
| Tries | Nathan Merritt (13) | |||
| Goals |  | |||
| Points | Issac Luke (106) | |||
| ||||
The 2008 South Sydney Rabbitohs season was the 99th in the club's history. Coached by Jason Taylor and captained by David Kidwell & Roy Asotasi, the team competed in the National Rugby League's 2008 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season in 14th place out of 16 teams and so failing to reach the finals. The club also competed in the 2008 Under-20s competition.
Jason Taylor is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player. He was the assistant coach of the Sydney Roosters in 2018 when the club won the premiership that year. He was also previously the head coach of the Parramatta Eels, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Wests Tigers clubs in the National Rugby League (NRL). A New South Wales State of Origin representative goal-kicking halfback of the 1990s and early 2000s, Taylor set a number of point-scoring and appearance records in the National Rugby League during a twelve-year career with the Western Suburbs Magpies, North Sydney Bears, Northern Eagles and Parramatta Eels.
David Kidwell is a professional rugby league coach who is the assistant coach at the Parramatta Eels in the NRL and a former player. As a player, he represented New Zealand as a member of the 2005 Tri-Nations and 2008 World Cup winning New Zealand teams. He primarily played as a second-row, though he started his career as a centre.
Roy Asotasi is a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop in the 2000s and 2010s. A New Zealand international captain, he also played for Samoa. Asotasi played in the NRL for Australian clubs the Bulldogs and the South Sydney Rabbitohs from 2007 to 2013. He then played in the Super League for the Warrington Wolves.
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On 26 January 2008, the Rabbitohs played the Leeds Rhinos at the Hodges Stadium at University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida, the first time first-grade professional rugby league teams from Australia and England played each other in the United States. A crowd of about 12,000 attended with Russell Crowe, Greg Norman, and the stars of television show American Chopper among the audience. Leeds Rhinos won the game 26-24(after having been behind 26-0 at half-time South Sydney staged an unlikely comeback that fell agonisingly short).
The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Founded in 1870, they compete in the Super League, the top-level rugby league club competition for an English club, and have won the competition a record eight times since its inception in 1996. They play their home matches at Headingley Rugby Stadium, and were the 2017 Super League champions.
The University of North Florida (UNF) is a public university in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. A member institution of the State University System of Florida, the university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, masters and doctorate degrees to its students. Its campus comprises 1,300 acres surrounded by a natural preserve on Jacksonville's Southside. The current president is David Szymanski.
Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida, the most populous city in the southeastern United States and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968. Consolidation gave Jacksonville its great size and placed most of its metropolitan population within the city limits. As of 2017, Jacksonville's population was estimated to be 892,062. The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,523,615 and is the fourth largest in Florida.
South Sydney equalled the second-biggest comeback in premiership history in Round 16 against the North Queensland Cowboys. After trailing 28–4 after fifty minutes, the Rabbitohs won the match 29–28. [1]
The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL).
No Rabbitohs players were selected for the 2008 State of Origin series, however at the end of season 2008 Rugby League World Cup tournament four were selected to play for Tonga (Manase Manuokafoa, Eddie Paea, Fetuli Talanoa and Joel Taufa'ao); three for the successful New Zealand squad (David Fa'alogo, David Kidwell and Issac Luke) and one captained Samoa (Nigel Vagana).
The 2008 State of Origin series was the 27th year that the annual best-of-three series of interstate rugby league football matches between the Queensland and New South Wales representative teams was contested entirely under 'state of origin' selection rules. At its commencement each side had won twelve Origin series with two series drawn.
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since its inauguration in 1954, and the first since the 2000 tournament. The tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final between Australia and New Zealand on 22 November.
The Tonga national rugby league team represents Tonga in rugby league football. They are currently the 4th ranked team in the world, and the highest ranked tier-two nation. The team was formed to compete in the 1986 Pacific Cup, and have competed at five Rugby League World Cups, starting in 1995 and continuing consecutively until the most recent tournament in 2017, where they achieved their best ever result as semi-finalists.
