NRL 2021: Kiwi great Benji Marshall stars in his record game as South Sydney Rabbitohs come from behind to beat Gold Coast Titans

Kiwi great Benji Marshall has starred for his South Sydney Rabbitohs side as they have come from 14 points down to beat the Gold Coast Titans 40-30 on Friday. 

On the night when he matched the record for the most NRL first-grade games by a Kiwi, Marshall ran in two tries, a try assist and 112 run metres to help Souths to their sixth win of the NRL season. 

Marshall, 36, was named on the interchange bench but started at five-eight for their visit to Queensland as he brought up his 331st appearance.

This equalled the mark currently held by former Wests Tigers teammate Adam Blair.

The utility made his NRL debut with Wests against Newcastle Knights in 2003, and has notched up games with the Tigers (257), St George Dragons (54), Brisbane Broncos (13) and Souths (6) over an 19-year career, scoring 94 tries and 1230 points.

The Titans made a fast start with barnstorming forward David Fifita crossing for his seventh try of the season after just three minutes but they didn't hold the lead for long.

The home side hit back 17 minutes later when Jaxson Paulo finished a great team try that saw ohim on the end of a grubber kick from centre Campbell Graham to level the scores. 

Marshall played a part in Souths second of the evening when he showed great soft hands to put second-row forward Keaon Koloamatangi into gapping hole before he offloaded to Cody Walker to crash over. 

The Titans went into rampage mode for the final 10 minutes of the first half. Fifita barged his way over for two tries in three minutes to give him his second hat-trick of the season and in the process became the first forward to score two hat-tricks in a season since Manly Sea Eagles legend Steve Menzies in 1998.

The Titans weren't done there as captain Jamal Fogarty scored a try-of-the-season contender bang on halftime to open up a 24-10 lead.

With just over a minute left before the break, five-eighth Ash Taylor flung it wide to wing Corey Thompson in front of his own posts. The winger turned the Souths defence inside out as he stormed downfield, before offloading to Fogarty to finish the 100-metre try.  

Souths came out on fire after the break and needed only five minutes to claim their third for the evening when centre Dane Gagai dotted down.

Just three minutes later, Marshall grabbed his first try of the contest, which showcased his trademark distribution  to close the gap to just four points. 

The Rabbitohs continued their incredible second-half performance when wing Alex Johnston scored to give Souths the lead for the first time since in the second stanza.

Utility forward Tyrone Peachey set up a grandstand finish when he grabbed a four-pointer 12-minutes from time but the star of the night was Kiwi's star Marshall who crashed over for his second and the match-winning try with just nine minutes remaining. 

Two late penalty goals from captain Adam Reynolds put the result beyond doubt to continue Souths impressive form and they did it without their star fullback Latrell Mitchell who was serving the first of his four-game ban. 

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