Ennis was in the thick of everything both good and bad on a miserable wet night at ANZ Stadium, the crafty No9 laying on both first-half tries and booting a crucial penalty goal midway through the second period to deliver the Bunnies their second loss of the season.

The Bunnies threatened to steal the game when John Sutton grubbered for Eddy Pettybourne to score with six minutes remaining. But when Craig Wing's kick rolled over the sideline with the siren blaring, the visitors' charge ended.

Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore credited his side's defence as the difference between the teams, but saved special mention for his busy hooker.

''He's been outstanding for us, all the way through the first five rounds of the comp,'' Moore said.

''His combination with Brett Kimmorley is growing day by day. We've done a fair bit of work the last few weeks on our attack and tonight we showed some improvement.''

Souths coach Jason Taylor appeared far from dejected, claiming the loss in difficult conditions was all part of the learning curve for his young side.

''We've got an enormous amount of improvement in us and we had similar issues tonight that we had a few weeks ago against Parramatta where we just didn't take advantage of our opportunities,'' Taylor said.

''We're not finishing our sets off well enough at times ... we had enough ball in the first half to score more points and we didn't do that.''

Skipper Roy Asotasi failed to share Taylor's glass half-full approach.

''In the end I just think we lost that game because of ourselves, because of the mistakes,'' he said.

''I think we just frustrated the hell out of ourselves.''

It didn't look like being Ennis's night when his kick-off sailed over the dead-ball line to hand the Bunnies an early opportunity which they turned into a second-minute try. But he more than made amends as he tormented the Rabbitohs for the remaining 78 minutes.