South Sydney fullback Latrell Mitchell has eased back into the NRL after an absence of almost three months to help restore confidence to the Rabbitohs in a 30-12 upset over Parramatta 30-12 in abysmal conditions.
If Mitchell is selected to play centre for NSW in the State of Origin decider, it will be on the back of his previous representative experience rather than his performance at Accor Stadium on Saturday night.
Playing his first game since injuring a hamstring in round five, Mitchell focused more on getting through the 80 minutes unscathed than putting on a rugby league masterclass.
Mitchell didn't run the football as much NSW coach Brad Fittler might have liked but he did break through the line to ignite the play that put the result beyond doubt in the 65th minute.
When the game was in the balance, Alex Johnston put his hand up for yardage carriages more often than Mitchel, while the halves took on the vast majority of playmaking duties.
Pleasingly, though, there were no signs of the hamstring troubles that have hindered Mitchell in recent times.
And coming off the back of a hefty loss to St George Illawarra, the Rabbitohs clearly took confidence from Mitchell's inclusion as they regained composure in attack.
Souths are the most error-prone team in the league but somehow managed to hold the ball better in the wet than they do when it's dry.
By the time they made an error, they had completed 11 of 11 sets and were two tries up.
Called up late for just his fourth NRL appearance, centre Isaiah Tass had a hand in both, first batting Cody Walker's pass on to Johnston before catching a Jaxson Paulo chip kick that he offloaded to Jai Arrow.
Souths coach Jason Demetriou hooked Lachlan Ilias just 28 minutes into the clash with St. George Illawarra but the young halfback bounced back and looked far more comfortable.
With the loss, the Eels missed a great chance to close in on the premiership leaders.
Instead, Parramatta fell victim to the trend that has typified their season to date -losing games they are expected to win.
The Eels average 14 offloads per game but appeared gun-shy in the wet and only created four second-phase plays.
Without that aspect of their game, Parramatta didn't trouble the Rabbitohs who controlled the battle for territory with ease, despite the wet.
Rabbitohs prop Hame Sele suffered a hamstring injury 12 minutes into the game and could spend some time in the casualty ward.
He watched the remainder of the contest from the sidelines and was joined by another Souths front-rower, Mark Nicholls, who failed his head injury assessment in the second half.
