[VIDEO] Manly Sea Eagles vs Sydney Roosters Highlights: NRL scores, blog

Match Results:

Manly Sea Eagles 10
Sydney Roosters 46

The Sydney Roosters have put in an absolutely dominating performance this evening as they ran riot to destroy the Manly Sea Eagles and their slim finals hopes in a 36 point win at Brookvale Oval.

For the Sea Eagles it is their second biggest defeat at Brookvale ever, and their worst in 52 years. It was a shocking night and despite plenty of effort and intensity during the first half, they couldn’t match it with the undermanned Roosters who turned the screws. The Sea Eagles then came out in the second half and looked to be completely out of the game as the Roosters ran on the points.

Feleti Mateo and Willie Mason were the only Manly players who could even have claims of having a decent game, whilst for the Rosters the likes of James Maloney, Jackson Hastings, Sam Moa, Aiden Guerra, Roger Tuivasa Sheck and both wingers in Brendan Elliot and Daniel Tupou played excellent games. Between the wingers they bagged six tries with a hat rick each.

Brendan Elliot opened the scoring in the 10th minute, and then scored again in the 17th off some well executed plays by the Roosters which put him over both times untouched.

The Manly defence were unable to adapt to the Roosters play and whilst different players were involved in each try Hastings and Maloney were both there. The first one in particular was a moment of brilliance with a Sam Moa offload from under the sticks to Hastings.

The next try was to Aiden Guerra in the 26th minute off a Jackson Hastings kick, perfectly executed.

Manly bounced back in the 37th minute with a try to Jamie Lyon in the corner as he almost was pushed into touch. It was a wonderful effort from the Manly centre and they could have easily had more tries in the last 10 minutes of the half.

At half time the Roosters were up 16 points to 6 and the game was well and truly on, however the Sea Eagles were going to have to come out of the half time break strongly.

They didn’t though as the Roosters put the foot down. Brendan Elliot was the first to score in the 43rd minute. Their forwards came up the field with absolute ease before they spread to the right hand corner through Hastings and Tuivasa – Sheck, Elliot scoring his third try of the night.,

The rampage continued with Daneil Tupou grabbing his first try in the 59th minute. It was a perfectly executed kick for the corner from Maloney, maybe a fraction short but that wouldn’t matter as Tupou leapt up, grabbed it and then ran the final 10 metres to score in the corner.

Just three minutes later Tupou would have his second for the night, this time with a long range effort in the same set as the kick off. A quick spread to the left on half way would see Tupou go around the outside and score in the corner after faking a pass to Maloney.

Tom Symonds would break up the rot in the 70th minute with a try for the Sea Eagles off a perfectly executed short pass from Daly Cherry Evans.

The Roosters however, scored two tries in the final five minutes and turned the scoreboard from a dominant performance into an absolute smashing as Tuivasa Sheckhad a hand in both Tupou’s third try and Isaac Liu’s try under the posts.

Manly now look to be out of contention for the finals and the Roosters move a step closer to the minor premiership. It was a brilliant performance tonight for the Roosters and they look to be in good form, even without their big guns sitting on the sideline.

Match Preview:

The Sydney Roosters can push their claims for the minor premiership when they take on the Manly Sea Eagles, who are still mathematically a chance of making the finals. Join The Roar for live coverage of this Round 25 clash from 7:30pm (AEST).

After a poor start to the season, Manly had been in brilliant form, winning six from eight to get themselves into finals contention. However last week they ran into the Parramatta Eels and produced possibly their worst performance of the season, putting their finals dream back on life support.

The Roosters had a big, but costly win over the Brisbane Broncos last week, with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Mitchell Pearce being injured.

The Roosters have been in awesome form, with their last loss coming back to Round 13 against the Cronulla Sharks. They have won 10 in a row to sit on top of the table.

In team news, the Sea Eagles have lost Matt Ballin to an ACL injury, potentially meaning he’s played his last game at the club. Blake Leary shifts to hooker from lock, Ligi Sao moves out of the front row to lock, and Willie Mason returns from suspension.

Waerea-Hargreaves and Pearce are out for the Roosters, while joining them on the sidelines will be the suspended Michael Jennings. Sam Moa returns from injury to the front row, Jackson Hastings is in the halves, and Mitch Aubusson moves from the bench to the centres. Matt McIlwrick and Suaia Matagi are added to the bench, with Willie Manu the 18th man.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is the man to guide the Roosters to a win. His work rate has been phenomenal this year in terms of metres run but he may have to take on a more creative role against the Sea Eagles. Moa’s game replacing Waerea-Hargreaves is also of utmost importance.

The Sea Eagles lacked patience last week against the Eels, and despite the terrible weather dropped far too much ball trying things in a game they should have won. Against the Roosters, patience is key.

The Sea Eagles hold an incredible record against the Roosters, having won 81 from 126 games over the years and only losing 12 at Brookvale.

Prediction
I’m going to go against the Roosters here. Manly were dreadful last week but will be looking to put that game out of their memories and bounce back.

Sea Eagles by 10.

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