Two teams on two wins and two losses will come together when the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and South Sydney Rabbitohs come face-to-face at Brookvale Oval this Thursday night.
The Sea Eagles will enter this match on the back of another five-day break after having edged out the Sydney Roosters 22-20 at Allianz Stadium last Saturday night for their second win in succession.
That came another five days after they’d won their first match under new coach Trent Barrett, defeating the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks 22-12 at Brookvale Oval. Prior to that, they suffered poor losses against the Bulldogs and Wests Tigers in their opening two games, both of which fullback Brett Stewart missed with injury.
This quirk in the scheduling, which will see the Sea Eagles play their third match in eleven days, has led to calls by the club to allow any club to use unlimited interchanges if they are forced to play five days after their previous match.
“Every team that plays a second game in five days should have unlimited interchange,” senior Manly official Peter Peters told The Daily Telegraph recently.
That being said, the Sea Eagles will be without halfback Daly Cherry-Evans for a month after he suffered an ankle injury against the Roosters last week, while other representative players Steve Matai and Jamie Buhrer are also battling injuries and may not play against the Rabbitohs.
And if that isn’t enough, they must then face two more five-day turnarounds between matches against the New Zealand Warriors and Parramatta Eels in Rounds 6 and 7, and then again between matches against the Newcastle Knights and North Queensland Cowboys in Rounds 8 and 9 respectively.
The only saving grace is that only the match against the Warriors is away from New South Wales, while the Anzac Day match against the Knights is only two hours up the Pacific Motorway.
The effect of the five-day turnaround was there for all to see when the Rabbitohs suffered Good Friday humiliation against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs last week, losing 42-12 after trailing 32-0 after half an hour of play.
That came after they’d lost 8-6 to St George Illawarra at the SCG in wet conditions in the match where Sam Burgess suffered what appeared to be a very serious neck injury and had to be stretchered off the field.
Prior to that, the Rabbitohs had started the season in scintillating form, thrashing the Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights and raising suggestions that they could be premiership contenders this season following a poor ending to their title defence last year, in which they bowed out of the finals in the first round.
But injuries to key players, including Burgess, John Sutton and Adam Reynolds appear to be taking its toll this early in the season and after their aforementioned impressive opening fortnight, now find themselves at 2-2 entering Round 5.
However, Souths fans now have reason to rejoice after Burgess was named to play against the Sea Eagles this Thursday night, while Sutton and Reynolds remain on the sidelines due to long-term injuries and aren’t due back any time soon.
Many put the Rabbitohs’ barnstorming start to the season down to Burgess’ return to the NRL after he’d endured an ill-fated twelve months in English rugby.
Had he played against the Bulldogs last week, it would’ve been his first match against them since the 2014 grand final, in which he put in a man-of-the-match performance despite suffering a facial injury in the opening seconds of the game.
Thus, he and fullback Greg Inglis loom as their keys to victory against the wounded Sea Eagles this Thursday night, and the Bunnies will want to bounce back following their listless display against the Bulldogs.
As for the Sea Eagles – well, they’ll just want to get over this match unscathed before not having to play again for another nine days. But then again, two more five-day breaks will loom (Rounds 6-7 and 8-9) on either side of what will undoubtedly be an enjoyable eleven-day break in between.
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