SAINTS were taught a harsh lesson by NRL champions South Sydney in front of a packed Langtree Park crowd.

The British champions lost 39-0 after being out-thought and out-muscled after allowing the Aussie premiers an early toe hold in the game with some errors.

In Saints' defence their opponents were pretty faultless and they smothered the life out of the home attack.

And, not that they needed it, every bounce of the ball went the way of the Australians which helped exacerbate the gulf between the respective champions.

It was a long night at the office for Saints and they can only hope that the mauling won't leave too many deep scars on a young side.

The game was barely two minutes old when Adam Reynolds' kick bamboozled the home defence with second row Glenn Stewart getting it down despite Jordan Turner's attempt to boot it away.

A Reynolds goal and penalty made it 8-0.

But after a big charge from Mose Masoe, the ball was flashed right where Mark Percival was denied by a miracle tackle from the powerful Greg Inglis, who managed to turn the Saints centre on the line.

On 22 minutes the Rabbitohs stretched the lead when fleet-footed centre turned the Saints defence inside out before darting to the line.

A poor carry from Adam Swift from the restart gifted the Souths a chance to launch another attack.

They did not spurn the chance with Inglis up in support to take a nice inside ball for another try.

Saints replied with a monster tackle forcing the Rabbitohs over the deadball line.

But they could not penetrate the stingy Rabbitohs defence.

Saints fell to a cruel sucker punch when a speculative last tackle kick curled around the back of the posts to be grounded by Joel Reddy. That summed up Saints' luck.

At the other end Percival looked over again, but once more the video ref ruled no try to send Saints in at the break scoreless.

Saints gave it a go at the start of the second half and a crash tackle from Turner on Walker showed spirit. Alas both had to leave the field as a result.

Rabbitohs responded best to the enforced break for the injuries and caught Saints cold with the next play, with a kick left being taken and grounded by Luke Keary to make it 30-0.

Tommy Makinson had half a chance on the right, but was smothered by a three man tackle.

That summed up the Rabbitohs defensive resolve - they were not letting anything past their line.

And after after another ball loose in the tackle, this time from a Joe Greenwood, Souths were over again with Chris McQueen crossing with ease.

Another try for Reddy in the corner and a drop goal from Reynolds really rubbed Saints nose in it, with the late one-pointer taking the score past the margin of Saints' 2003 slaughter by the Roosters to make it a record margin.