The Stat to Fix: Rabbitohs' shocking opening 20 record

NRL.com Stats has crunched the numbers to pin-point the area each team must fix in 2018. For the South Sydney Rabbitohs, starting games poorly has been their Achilles heel recently. 

The Rabbitohs got their 2018 campaign away with a winner against Wigan on Saturday night, but it's also been their starts in recent times that have had them in trouble.

When it came to the opening 20 minutes of games last year, no side was as vulnerable as South Sydney.

With 28 tries conceded across the first quarter of matches in 2017 – the worst record in the NRL, the cardinal and myrtle found themselves playing catch up football far too often.

Across the season, opposition teams outscored them two tries to one in the first 20 minutes, a trend that continued more often than not throughout the opening 40.

The Rabbitohs conceded a total of 57 first half tries last year while scoring just 33. They did at least tighten things up after the break, leaking a far more acceptable 38 four-pointers in second halves throughout 2017.