Five things we learned from Sea Eagles v Knights
By Joe McDonough
July 31, 2016
THE Sea Eagles have won their fourth game on the trot, with a convincing 36-16 victory over the Knights at Brookvale Oval in front of a crowd of 11,222. Hear are the five things RLW learned:
1. Not all smiles.
With the win today Manly has moved to within two points of the top-eight but Trent Barrett will be bitterly disappointed his side didn’t go on with the job in the second half. Leading 26-0 at the break, the home side were well on their way to improving their ‘for and against’ significantly. But it wasn’t to be, as the young Knights rallied to win the second stanza by 16 points to 10, cutting the winning margin to just 20 at full-time. With their points differential now standing at -40, they’re still a fair way off the Titans, Panthers and Warriors, and have a number of tough games ahead.
2. Front rowers stand tall.
Darcy Lussick and Marty Taupau were brilliant up the guts for the Sea Eagles today. The book-ends both made over 200 metres with explosive ball-running, and backed their efforts up in defence, regularly putting on big hits to lift their team.
3. DCE helps out mate.
Acts don’t come any more selfless than Daly Cherry-Evans’ today. When Tom Trbojevic strode clear of the defensive line with his shorts down around his knees, he drew Jake Mamo to DCE and the Manly halfback was all but over under the posts. Instead he turned to his left and popped a pass to his mate Josh Starling, who finished off the four-pointer untouched. Asked about the incident, DCE said he felt bad for outpacing the prop in support, and as he regularly ribs Starling for his inability to score tries, he thought it was only fair.
4. Big second half.
They racked up 27 missed tackles in the first half, so it’s no wonder Manly put 26 points on them in 40 minutes of football. But Nathan Brown has to memorise his half-time motivational speech, because the Knights came out of the sheds and turned it all around. They were committed in defence and were regularly bending the line in attack. There are definitely some encouraging signs for this largely inexperienced squad.
5. Tommy Turbo.
Sure he made a few errors late in the match, but once again Tom Trbojevic was head and shoulders above everyone else on the park. Every time the youngster had the ball you expected something special to happen. He laid on two tries, ran for over 180 metres, made five tackle breaks and had two line-break assists. If they can continue their run and earn an unlikely finals berth, the lanky custodian will be the major reason why.
Sea Eagles 36 (Wiliame 2, Taufua, Buhrer, Starling, Walker, Wright tries; Walker 4 goals) beat
Knights 16 (P.Mata’utia, Bhana, Elliot tries; Hodkinson 2 goals) at Brookvale Oval.
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