Canberra Raiders vs South Sydney Rabbitohs Try Scorers: Matchup Analysis — Round 20

Alex Johnston returns to attack Canberra’s leaky right edge, while David Fifita and Tallis Duncan give South Sydney two more strong routes into the Raiders’ defence.

By Matchup Engine18 July 2026

See the full Canberra Raiders v South Sydney Rabbitohs board

South Sydney arrive at GIO Stadium on Saturday afternoon with three distinct ways to attack a leaking Canberra defence. Alex Johnston headlines, back from a calf injury on the left wing outside Cody Walker, with a barnstorming second-rower and a red-hot centre behind him. Sunny, dry and around 16 degrees, so no weather caveat. Here is the engine's read.

🏁 Formation Lap

The story lives on Canberra's right side. That edge carries the #29 card of 34 for the season, most of the damage coming out wide, with 14 tries conceded down the right wing this year, 0.82 a game and fifth-most in the league. Johnston plays exactly there. The left is exposed too, where five-eighth Ethan Strange is the most-beaten half in the NRL, beaten 0.93 times a game, #1 of 42 halves against a positional average of 0.32. So Souths have ways in on both edges, while their own right-side defence has firmed into one of the stingier looks in the round.

Try Matrix

Attack × defence

Window

CAN Scored · 17 GP

by attacking position

Pos

SOU Conceded · 16 GP

by defensive position

L2RF

#36

5/8

R2RF

#110

#25

FWD

Every try, watched. Positions and beaten defenders are hand-tagged from Matchup Engine’s own film review — counts may differ from official stats.

🏁 Pole Position — Alex Johnston (LW, South Sydney)

Johnston tops the game at a 9.1 Matchup Rating, with an A+ Scoring Profile (#2 of 32) and a B+ Engine Lane (#11 of 32) aimed straight at that leaking right-wing channel. The unit sending him into it, Souths' left-edge attack, is the best in the league, and his record does the rest. Nineteen tries in 13 games, a try in 84 per cent of his outings, and he returns straight back outside Walker.

The honest caveat is recency. That Canberra edge has cooled, its recent card sitting #14 of 34, so the case leans on the season-long body of work. At $1.72 the market has largely priced it in, though the model still sees a small +2.5% edge.

⚙️ Hidden Horsepower — David Fifita (R2RF, South Sydney)

Fifita rates 7.8 and carries the best model edge in the game, with an A+ Scoring Profile (#2 of 32) and an A- Engine Lane (#9 of 32). The lane is genuinely strong. Souths' right-second-row channel has produced 7 tries this season, the most prolific of any of the 17 clubs, and the man in front of him is Ethan Strange. The Formation Lap covers what defending there has looked like, and a bronze recent-form gauge adds a light note, a top-three attack into a leaky channel lately.

This is where the value lives. At $2.90 the market treats him as a mid-board second-rower, but the model has him +4.9%. The price underrates the matchup.

⚡ Full Throttle — Duncan (LC, South Sydney)

Duncan rates 7.3, and his case is built on the man rather than the lane. He owns the top Scoring Profile in the game, A+ and #1 of 32, with 3 tries in his last 3, a left-centre channel that is the most prolific of all 17 clubs this season with 13 tries, and a direct opponent in Simi Sasagi who is beaten 0.55 times a game, #8 of 41 centres.

The lane is solid without being the star. He attacks the same leaky Canberra right edge as Johnston, and it has leaked down the centre too, 7 tries conceded this season, 7th-most among the league's centre channels. But that channel has cooled, just 2 tries in its last 7 games, and graded against the round's other centres the lane lands an average C-, #20 of 32. His scoring powers the case, the lane a secondary tick, and his $2.55 price reads as fair.

🚧 Roadblock — Matthew Timoko (LC, Canberra)

Timoko is the one to avoid at 5.9, with a D- Scoring Profile (#27 of 32) and a D Engine Lane (#26). He attacks that tightened Souths right edge, #9 of 34 for the season, #8 recently, with zero tries conceded in the last six games, and the unit sending him into it, Canberra's left-edge attack, sits near the bottom of the league at #30. The one flicker is his direct opponent, Jack Wighton, beaten a fairly frequent 0.7 times a game. But the channel around Wighton has held firm, Timoko's own output is thin, and the model has him at negative value, -1.5% at $3.60.

🏁 Chequered Flag

Three Rabbitohs, three routes into the same frame. Johnston at the leaking right-wing channel, Fifita at the most-beaten half in the league, Duncan on scoring signal and form with a serviceable lane behind them. Timoko is the Raider to sidestep, his lane running into the part of the Rabbitohs' defence that is actually holding up. That contrast is the read.