Manly’s under 20’s campaign has started off with a bang at Pirtek Stadium in their round one clash against the Parramatta Eels.
In a match that was frantic and end to end, the young silvertails showed their attacking master class, which saw a host of try scorers and a four try haul to Sea Eagles fullback Tom Trbojevic, who sent them well on their way to a convincing win.
However, it was not a great start for the Manly side, coughing up possession on the Parramatta 40 metre line in the early stages, which resulted in the Eels going the 60-metre distance to post first points on the board when Abbas Miski strolled into the corner for opening points.
After a quiet ten minutes Manly finally managed to make strong possession count when fullback Tom Trbojevic latched on to an offload and sped away from the flailing Parramatta players just before rounding his opposite number for the Sea Eagles’ first four pointer, converted by hooker Hugh Pratt.
Manly soon looked to their Fullback again and Trbojevic provided another surging run of a short ball before putting his teammate and winger Mitch Davies in the corner to stretch the score out to 10-4.
However, Parramatta soon rebutted off back-to-back penalties and Aaron Pene scored in the opposite corner to the first Parramatta try, which was converted by Nathan Davis, levelling the scores at 10-all.
Manly’s next try came from a moment of controversy when what seemed to be a Manly knock down was ruled in their favour, and they duly replied when Mitch Thomas latched on to a grubber kick for his second of the evening.
Manly started to assert their dominance late in the first half, having a great game through the middle of the park. Another strong break through the middle was rounded off a play later by centre, Jesse Ramien, making the score 20-10 to the Sea Eagles for the first half.
The second half started with a bang with Parramatta turning their first possession into points after a strong run through the heart of Manly’s defence, which was turned into points the next play when Aaron Pene crossed for his second of evening, which Nathan Davis converted from out wide for a 20-16 score line.
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The second half continue at a fast pace in the opening few minutes with Sea Eagles first touch resulting in points after Jesse Ramien exploded into space then releasing Tom Trbojevic for another Manly try.
The score could not stay the same for more than two minutes and the 26-16 score line lasted only a few seconds when Parramatta reverted to hot potato football. Stretching Manly, the Eels spread it wide to centre Reimis Smith, whose runaway try was converted to make it a four-point game.
In a try count dominated by the speedsters; the Sea Eagles’ next try came from front rower, Jesse Maxwell, after valuable metres from Trbojevic, which was followed up by another break through the middle where Maxwell was given the ball in space in which he ran home strong shrugging off a couple of tackles before scoring near the posts.
Manly then turned great defence into offence when denying Parramatta winger Abbas Miski his second when he bolted towards the corner. The resulting possession from Manly was turned into points, with side travelling to the end of the field, where Bevan French’s cute little grubber was met by Jesse Raimen for his double.
The game was put beyond doubt when fullback and Man of the Match Tom Trboveic scored his third try, which was converted by Nathan Davis for a 44-22 score.
The hot potato football continued to work for the Parramatta side that again used it to stretch Manly and after a switch play found Reimis Smith again for his second of the evening.
However, Manly didn’t shut up shop and they were in again after another strong defensive effort. Using their available 7 tackles after an in-goal grab, Manly ran to the end of the field, which saw five eight Will Pearsall kicked through for himself to add to the score sheet.
The game was then wrapped up when none other than Manly fullback Tom Trbojevic crossed for his unbelievable fourth try.
The game ended with Manly soaring to a huge 56-26 win, showing to some real class going forward and being able to add some solid defence to boost. A great start for the silvertails, who got their season off to the best possible start.
