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Manly Sea Eagles 32
New Zealand Warriors 12
Injuries ruled the day at Mount Smart Stadium as the Manly Sea Eagles managed to record a 20 point upset win over the New Zealand Warriors after a horror week off the field. The Warriors were never really in the contest, but for both teams the game has come at a massive cost.
>>MATCH REPORT: Manly too strong for Warriors
For the New Zealand Warriors we have seen Shaun Johnson taken to hospital with a leg injury, Bodene Thompson pick up an injury and plenty of players looking bruised and battered.
For the Sea Eagles, Steve Matai was taken off with a concussion that looks like it could rule him out for a period of time, Luke Burgess copped a nasty looking leg injury and didn’t return whilst Tom Symonds was also taken off the field with an injury among others.
The Sea Eagles were the dominant team throughout the game and whilst it was a genuine team effort, their starting front row combination of Jake Trbojevic and Willie Mason, forced to play extra minutes due to injuries were fantastic in laying the platform for the victory. They were backed up by Brett Stewart, Daly Cherry Evans and Kieran Foran who all had very strong games.
For the Warriors they just couldn’t get themselves into the game after Shaun Johnson was taken off with his injury and despite some moments of brilliance from Sam Tomkins and Chad Townsend they just couldn’t crack Manly. Albert Vete was probably their best on ground coming off the bench.
The scoring opened in the 10th minute with Jake Trbojevic crossing over after an offload from Ligi Sao. It surprised the home fans and the Warriors certainly didn’t seem to have flown out of the gates with much intensity.
The Warriors then got some attack going and managed to score after some individual brilliance from Shaun Johnson who quite literally tore the Manly line in half and injured himself quite badly in the process, ending his game.
The game went back and forth for the rest of the first half, with regular stoppages for injury, the game going to the break all square at 6-6.
Following the half time break the Sea Eagles completely took over the game scoring three tries in between the 45th and 51st minute, all the tries down the left hand side with two to Jorge Taufua and one to Brett Stewart.
The Warriors defence almost seemed powerless to stop the combinations of Stewart, Taufua, Symonds, Cherry Evans and Foran as they ran on the points.
In the 67th minute Brett Stewart was then able to crash over after 15 minutes of dominance from the Sea Eagles, taking the Warriors right out of the game.
It was incredible the Sea Eagles were able to dominate that period of the game, with just 13 fit players left at the disposal of Geoof Toovey. Cherry Evans kicking game was almost perfect and their defence just kept turning up.
The Warriors were the next to score through Albert Vete giving them a slight flicker of hope with 8 minutes. to go. That didn’t last long however as they put the ball down in the next set and Matt Ballin scored the last try of the game in the 77th minute with a dart out of dummy half.
At the end of the day the Sea Eagles way too good for the Warriors in Auckland as they keep their finals hopes alive.
The New Zealand Warriors return to their home in Auckland this week after a demoralising loss to host the Manly Sea Eagles who are in desperate need of a win. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary of this Round 20 clash from 2:45pm (AEST).
The Warriors were really starting to look the goods in 2015, like they might finally make a real charge at the finals. However that was before they came up against competition powerhouse, the Sydney Roosters. The results was a 24-0 drubbing in a completely dominate performance by the Roosters and back to the drawing board for the Warriors.
If they can get back to where they were before they took on the Roosters, which included a three game winning streak to have them in the top four, then they should be able to walk over the top of Manly. Coming into Round 20 they sit in seventh place.
The Sea Eagles meanwhile are quite literally having the season from hell. During the week it was reported that up to 14 players would not be retained at the end of the season and that coach Geoff Toovey would also be out the door.
The Sea Eagles currently sit in 13th place and would have to win pretty much all of their games from here on out to make the top eight in 2015. However, despite a last-start loss to the Cowboys they had been starting to get into some form.
In team news for this clash, neither have rung the changes. For the Warriors, Glen Fisiiahi makes his return on the wing in place of David Fusitu’a who had a shocker last weekend. Tuimoala Lolohea shifts to the centres and Sam Lisone is the 18th man.
The Sea Eagles are unchanged for the trip across the Tasman.
Manly will be desperate for a victory and will stop at nothing, so expect them to try and throw the ball around a fair bit and run up a big score.
The player to watch for the Sea Eagles is Brett Stewart. He has been on fire in recent weeks, scoring tries at will and setting up others. If the Sea Eagles are to win Stewart will need to go close to putting in a man of the match performance.
The Warriors meanwhile will look to the brilliance of Shaun Johnson and a much better defensive effort than what they put in last week. Sam Tomkins was also one of their best last week and will need another big performance.
The key man though for the Warriors is Chad Townsend. His kicking game allows Tomkins and Johnson to weave their magic so it will need to be spot on.
Prediction:
This is shaping up as an interesting match and it could well go down to the wire, however it is hard to tip against the Warriors at home, especially given what’s happened off the field for Manly.
Warriors by 14.
Join The Roar for live scores and commentary of this clash from 2:45pm (AEST) and feel free to comment if you’re following along.