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 The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

'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. On 26 January 2008, the Rabbitohs played the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headin ...

at the Hodges Stadium at

University of North Florida The University of North Florida (UNF) is a public research university in Jacksonville, Florida. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Sc ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, the first time first-grade professional rugby league teams from Australia and England played each other in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. A crowd of about 12,000 attended with Russell Crowe,

Greg Norman Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournament ...

, and the stars of television show

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among the audience.

won the game 26-24(after having been behind 26-0 at half-time South Sydney staged an unlikely comeback that fell agonisingly short). South Sydney equalled the second-biggest comeback in premiership history in Round 16 against the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

. After trailing 28–4 after fifty minutes, the Rabbitohs won the match 29–28. No Rabbitohs players were selected for the

2008 State of Origin series 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' sel ...

, however at the end of season

2008 Rugby League World Cup 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 ...

tournament four were selected to play for

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(

Manase Manuokafoa Manase Manuokafoa (born 24 March 1985) is a former Tongan international rugby league footballer who last played as a for RC Albi XIII in the Elite One Championship. Background He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Playing care ...

Eddie Paea Edmond "Eddie" Paea (born 8 February 1988) is a dual-code rugby international rugby footballer for Tonga. Beginning his professional career playing rugby league with the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League, Paea made his debut f ...

, 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 Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

(

Nigel Vagana Nigel Faletoese Vagana (born 7 February 1975), also known by the nicknames of "Pablo", and "Chiko", is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s, as a and . A New Zealand and Samoa international represen ...

Ladder

Player statistics

Representative Honours

References

{{2008 in rugby league South Sydney Rabbitohs seasons South Sydney Rabbitohs season