Taufua shines as Eagles beat Bunnies
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Reigning premiers Manly proved they’re the real deal by snapping South Sydney’s six-match winning streak with a tough 23-6 win in Gosford.
Young winger Jorge Taufua scored twice for the Sea Eagles as they ran in 23 unanswered points following Souths’ opener just five minutes into the match.
The result means Souths drop to third on the NRL ladder with the Sea Eagles just behind him them in fourth.
Halfback Adam Reynolds continued to press his claims for rookie-of-the-year honours with a precise kick that allowed second-rower Chris McQueen to set up Sam Burgess for the opening try of the match.
But that was as good as it got for the Bunnies, with Dean Whare scoring just three minutes later to cut the deficit to two.
Taufua then scored his first of the night in the 34th minute before a Daly Cherry-Evans field goal on the stroke of halftime gave Manly a three-point lead at the break.
Brett Stewart and Kieran Foran combined to put Taufua over as Manly ran away with the game in the second half.
Reynolds tried to spark the Rabbitohs into life but their attack faltered and their winning run came to a sudden halt.
The result was put beyond doubt in the final 10 minutes when David Williams crossed for the Sea Eagles’ fourth try after some great build-up play by skipper Jamie Lyon.
Hooker Matt Ballin then completed the win with his first try of 2012 in the final minute.
Manly coach Geoff Toovey was pleased to pick up the points in a tough game.
“We’ll take the positives out of the game, I thought we did a good job defensively,” Toovey said.
“We’ve had a tough couple of weeks with the travel. Tonight was a bit of a home game for us, we have played here before – it’s a great venue.”
South Sydney coach Michael Maguire said that it was a good lesson for his side not to go away from their game plan and that failure to complete sets in the second half put unnecessary pressure on the team.
“There’s a lot of disappointment in the changing room, but as a group we got a lot out of it as well,” Maguire said.
It was left to Souths co-captain Michael Crocker to sum up the difference between the two sides.
“I think they played semi-final football and we didn’t,” he said.
“They were excellent, that’s a premiership winning team right there.”
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (17) | Page 1 of Comments
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August 11th 2012 @ 6:38am
The Barry said | August 11th 2012 @ 6:38am | Report comment
I’d be pretty worried if I was a souths supporter.
First quality opposition in a couple of months and they got well and truly rolled. It’s not like manly were at the top of their game either – they were pretty dusty in the first half.
Could have been more too if Lyon had his kicking boots on.
Souths have Cronulla, Parra and Newcastle in the run home, I reckon Maguire would like to have a couple of tougher games in the mix before the semis. Next weeks game against the Sharks will be very important especially if Cronulla continue their mini-resurgence.
There’s a lack of big game experience in the souths team. They’ll definitely be in the 8 and probably in he Top 4. Beyond that I think they’ll be better next year for a couple of semi final appearances.
As an aside – how good looking are the Dutch womens hockey team ? Smoking.
August 11th 2012 @ 11:27am
Ian Whitchurch said | August 11th 2012 @ 11:27am | Report comment
The Barry,
Given that I’ve been saying “we’re a year too early” all year, Im not worried.
This game and the Canterbury game showed while we can look good against the rest, we’re not a top-class side this year.
August 11th 2012 @ 1:44pm
The Barry said | August 11th 2012 @ 1:44pm | Report comment
Fair enough.
I think a lot of rabbits fans would have had their hopes raised over the past 6 weeks. Last night was a bit of a reality check.
For the past fortnight it seems like 50% of articles on the roar have been raves about the rabbits being the real deal and able to take it all the way.
They’ll be much better next year for the experience.
August 11th 2012 @ 6:48am
steve b said | August 11th 2012 @ 6:48am | Report comment
Manly showed that they are real contenders for a spot in the grand final if they can keep playing like that ,Souths just didn’t have an answer to the onslaught of Manly ,,in this one the score did show the real difference between the teams ..However Souihs have ingliss returning and i am sure they won’t go down without a fight ,,some great footy ahead in the comng weeks …
August 11th 2012 @ 6:55am
The Barry said | August 11th 2012 @ 6:55am | Report comment
Manly were pretty ordinary in the first half steve. Toovey won’t be totally stoked about that performance.
Things started sliding for souths from about 15 minutes in and there was no one stepping up for them. Maybe Inglis is the answer but he can’t do it by himself.
Tooves will be happy with Foran and DCE running into some good form
You’re spot on about the footy – you can feel the semis in the air. The next four weeks will be fantastic and will continue to sort out contenders from pretenders.
August 11th 2012 @ 7:17am
steve b said | August 11th 2012 @ 7:17am | Report comment
The Barry yes they got of to slow start but when they got out of first gear i thought they looked like the Manly of old ! They were up in Souths faces causing them to rush passes and make mistakes ,,and souths just didn’t have the go forward like they have displayed in recent weeks …
August 11th 2012 @ 7:56am
Adrian said | August 11th 2012 @ 7:56am | Report comment
NRL should get a dream grand final this year looking very much like Manly v Canterbury. To think Des Hasler should still be coaching Manly as per contract it’s amazing, I don’t think Canterbury would be where they are if Dymock was standing in this season.
Look to Souths next season they’ll be a better team without Taylor as well he’s not a big game player and should never kick a ball in his playing career again.
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August 11th 2012 @ 8:38am
Matt said | August 11th 2012 @ 8:38am | Report comment
Souths are like panthers of a few years back, somehow during the season managed to string a lot of wins together and finish 2nd, but never looked that convincing and often struggled against the top sides. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the bunnies not make the GF.
August 11th 2012 @ 9:50am
Albo said | August 11th 2012 @ 9:50am | Report comment
As much as I hate to say it, I think Manly are looking more and more like the team to beat this year.
They haven’t yet performed at their best, but still have enough class to get out of trouble each week.
They know how to win even when the chips are down.
They have the best halves pairing in the comp and Jamie Lyons provides the experience and inspiration to keep the scoring opportunities coming. They have a hard working backrow. Their front row is adequate at best, I believe, but overall they have a winning attitude. With Steve Matai back they will be terribly hard to beat in September.
August 11th 2012 @ 10:48am
Bearfax said | August 11th 2012 @ 10:48am | Report comment
Must admit I was very surprised by the result…and I’m a Manly supporter.
But to me Souths looked like they got stage fright and reverted back to their one out style of play. They’ve been playing brilliantly as a team the last few weeks but against Manly, seemed that lessons learnt, were forgotten. Maybe Manly’s defensive effort contributed to the colapse of confidence. But they didnt look the same team that has been easily rollingopposition the last month or two. Maybe without Inglis at full back (and I’m a Merrit fan), they lost some of their mojo because theyhave seemed to come alive ever since the big man took over that role. But I wouldnt be too worried if I was a Souths fan. They have outstanding personnel in the team and McGuire seems to know how to get the best out of them. I suspect he’ll be reminding them of what they didnt do against Manly.
As for Manly, their tenacity is outstanding. They cling like a leech and just dont give up. Only once when half the team were flu struck against Newcastle, did they drop their bundle. The half pairing is outstanding, Lyon should surely be in Manly’s best ever side, the back row is almost as good as the Menzies, Gartner, Kosef days, though I think Tony Williams is a bit of a hit and miss player…Watmough and Glenn Stewart are pure class. A solid front row, an aggressive second centre in Matai, two wingers who know where the try line is and a formidable custodian in Brett Stewart. But this year they’ve been acting like three cylinders working on a four cylinder engine that’s actually a six cylinder capacity. They’ve reached four cylinder performance against Souths. Can they hit the six cylinder capacity they achieved last year by the time of the finals?
August 11th 2012 @ 1:48pm
The Barry said | August 11th 2012 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
Toovey has done a pretty good job so far this season getting Manly to where they are given the number of injuries, the travelling load at the start of the year, the origin workload.
His big test as a coach will be getting the side from 4 to 6 cylinder performance by the time we hit the semis.
They still have a few rough edges to get off their game over the next month but they seem to be warming to the task nicely.
As a Bulldogs supporter I’m hoping Souths can finish in fourth.
August 11th 2012 @ 2:29pm
Dogs Of War said | August 11th 2012 @ 2:29pm | Report comment
To be honest I though Taufua was a weakness for Manly, yes he scored a couple of tries, but he could have had more if he positioned himself better, plus in defence he was caught out a few times.
On the flip side, Whare is a great signing by Penrith next year. The more I see him of in first grade, the better he looks. Panthers may be able to let Jennings go and have him slip straight into the lineup.
August 11th 2012 @ 4:02pm
oikee said | August 11th 2012 @ 4:02pm | Report comment
Weak soft bunnies.
August 11th 2012 @ 4:11pm
NF said | August 11th 2012 @ 4:11pm | Report comment
oikee Broncos supporters are bit rich calling Bunnies soft currently since the Bronx got flogged by Parra of all teams a while back.
August 11th 2012 @ 4:28pm
mike from tari said | August 11th 2012 @ 4:28pm | Report comment
Manly played better, showed Souths what has to be done, I’m sure the Souths playerstook note of how the Manly players manage to to hold down players without getting penalized, I am amazed at the lieniency that manly get in this area. Luke should have started as in the first 20 minutes Souths had the ball, he could have caused havoc. We will get you when Inglis gets back in mark my words.
August 11th 2012 @ 9:46pm
Bearfax said | August 11th 2012 @ 9:46pm | Report comment
Ho hum. Another supporter who uses one stop watch for his team and another for other teams, especially those that win against them. Funny how its always the other teams illegal actions when their team loses…or maybe its the referees. Naturally you overlooked the fact that Souths dominated the penalties, but hey why spoil a good fantasy with facts.
Manly won because especially in the second half they maintained their discipline and showed, finally, some creativity in attack. Souths lost because they forgot what won them the games over the preceding month and a half and I think like Manly without Brett Stewart, they lost confidence without Inglis at full back. That’s why they lost the game FULL STOP.
I’m sure that their coach, McGuire, will show them where they went wrong because from my point of view, it was bleeding obvious that they decided to play one out instead of as a team as they had been….not because of anything Manly supposedly did illegally. And hey I watch a lot of South’s matches because they are currently my second favourite team. Try opening the other eye for a change
August 11th 2012 @ 11:09pm
eagleJack said | August 11th 2012 @ 11:09pm | Report comment
Well said Bearfax. Interesting for a Souths fan to bring up leniency when his team conceded only 1 penalty in 78mins of football. They must be such a well disciplined side…..