SAINTS are being taught a harsh lesson by NRL champions South Sydney in front of a packed Langtrree Park crowd.

The British champions trail 24-0 at half time after allowing the Aussie premiers an early toe hold in the game with some errors.

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.