It's the preliminary final of grand final proportions that will once again divide two of rugby league's oldest enemies.

It was meant to be the final chapter of the 2014 season, but South Sydney and the Sydney Roosters will resume hostilities a week earlier than many anticipated at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.

Sonny Bill Williams versus Sam Burgess, Trent Robinson against Michael Maguire, Mitchell Pearce versus Adam Reynolds.

It's the mouth-watering showdown that almost didn't happen after the Roosters received an almighty scare from the Cowboys on Friday night, nearly surrendering a 30 point lead in a thrilling final at Allianz Stadium.

But James Maloney's field goal has set the stage for what will be the biggest clash between the Rabbitohs and Roosters since their last finals battle in the decider of the 1938 season.

While Robinson was filthy with some areas of his team's performance against the Cowboys, he said there were aspects of the win he hoped his side could replicate against the Rabbitohs.

"Hopefully it goes like that for a bit of the game for us, but it's a completely different contest," Robinson said.

"We had a different one last week, we'll have a different one next week. We haven't taken the traditionally route this year and we have a massive challenge.  They dominated last week, that was a huge performance from them. We have to improve huge amounts on some areas we had tonight and I'd love to keep some of the areas that we had tonight for next week."

Roosters skipper Anthony Minichiello, who admitted he feared his career was about to come to an abrupt end when he threw a wayward pass that led to a Cowboys try, said he was excited about the prospect of a do-or-die showdown against the old enemy.

"There's obviously going to be a big build up, Souths-Roosters are always traditionally great clashes," Minichiello said.

"It's going to be no different on Friday. It's going to be really exciting. We've got some stuff to work on but we'll be ready to play."

The Roosters surrendered five tries in a 22 minute period either side of half time before gathering their composure for the final quarter of the match.

Robinson said the Cowboys' equaliser helped the Roosters get their minds back on the job, proud of the fight his team showed to withstand an onslaught from the Cowboys.

"I think we saw the best and worst of both teams tonight," Robinson said.

There was some outstanding footy played by both teams, then some really poor footy on the other side. You didn't know if it was coming from our team or the opposition team. Once we got back to 30-all, everyone calmed down a little bit. We got better in defence and they didn't attack as well. For me, I felt more comfortable this week then last week because I knew we were in a rhythm in the last 20 minutes .. I knew we were fighting hard in our style. There were some crucial moments and we iced them.

"I don't think I've ever seen a game of footy like that. I don't think I've ever coached in one like that. It's easy to feel disappointed, we're the last team to have 30 points against us, it was easy to pull out of the game and start reflecting on what went wrong. But it takes a courageous bunch of guys to work their way back into the game and execute like they did. There's some stuff that I don't want to see again but gee there are some character traits there that I'd like to see again."