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There is only one undefeated team left in the NRL after the Sydney Roosters suffered their first loss of the season in a gripping encounter against the Manly Sea Eagles at Allianz Stadium.
The Roosters came into Round 5 alongside the Melbourne Storm at the top of the NRL ladder, but Trent Barrett’s men put in a spirited performance to pick up their third straight victory.
The Sea Eagles have been on a surprising run of form, picking up a win against the North Queensland Cowboys before mauling the Canterbury Bulldogs, but this match was always going to be the real test and they answered the calling.
Manly came out of the gates firing and dominated the first ten minutes with their forwards firing as Blake Green got involved at every opportunity alongside the Trbojevic brothers who led them around the park fantastically.
Strong goal line defence became a theme of the game from the outset as both sides struggled for points. Manly failed to crack the scoreboard despite all the ball, and with an opportunity to put points on the board from a penalty, they took the two to take an early lead.
It didn’t take long for the Roosters to get themselves back into the game. Mitchell Pearce and Luke Keary did a superb job putting the Sea Eagles defence under all sorts of pressure for the first try of the game.
On the back of a Jake Friend run from dummy half and penalty, the Roosters scored in the corner, with both Mitchell Pearce and Luke Keary involved in the play, the gaps opened and Keary’s cutout pass to Shaun Kenny-Dowall paved the way for him to crash over.
Manly took just four minutes to hit back, creating something from nothing. A Jake Trbojevic offload which found Apisai Koroisau set up Tom Trbojevic to go through the line and then loop a pass over the top to Jorge Taufua who set sail for a try in the corner.
While that was the end of the first half scoring, both sides had their opportunities to score. Michael Gordon missed a penalty goal with a chance to so easily have the lead at the break.
The opportunities to score continued in the second half, but defence was the order of the day. Akuilla Uate did a superb job under pressure time and time again for Manly, with kicks regularly targeting his corner, while the back three saw Manly dominate the field position.
Eventually, the arm-wrestle was broken out of with Dylan Walker getting across the try line from a superb Blake Green grubber.
That put Manly in the lead, but it also seemed to open the floodgates with some lazy defence at the other end allowing Mitchell Pearce to take on the line and crash over for a try that tied the game back up with ten minutes to go.
Trent Robinson’s men then fell into the trap of targeting field goals and it hurt them as they gave up opportunities to score.
Manly missed a field goal of their own, but a wonderful pass from Brian Kelly at halfway put Walker through the line who outran everyone for his second try and the victory.
The Roosters will now face a trip to Brisbane, where the Broncos will be out to turn their form around after a loss to the Bulldogs on Thursday, while the Sea Eagles have an eight-day turnaround ahead of hosting the similarly surprising St George Illawarra Dragons.
At Allianz Stadium, the Sea Eagles picked up two important competition points in an upset victory.
Tries: Roosters (2), Sea Eagles (3)
Conversions: Roosters (2/2), Sea Eagles (2/3)
Penalty goals: Roosters (0/1), Sea Eagles (1/1)
Field goals: Roosters (0/2), Sea Eagles (0/1)
Possession: Roosters (50%), Sea Eagles (50%)
Completions: Roosters (28/38), Sea Eagles (30/37)
All runs: Roosters (170), Sea Eagles (172)
All run metres: Roosters (1668), Sea Eagles (1769)
Line breaks: Roosters (3), Sea Eagles (7)
Offloads: Roosters (10), Sea Eagles (11)
Tackles: Roosters (353), Sea Eagles (307)
Missed tackles: Roosters (33), Sea Eagles (47)
Penalties: Roosters (6), Sea Eagles (4)
Errors: Roosters (13), Sea Eagles (10)
Sydney Roosters 12
Manly Sea Eagles 18