The Sea Eagles NSW Cup side have come from behind to defeat the Illawarra Cutters 32 points to 20 and record their first win of the season for 2015.
Top notch performances from Kurt Aldridge, David Williams, Jayden Hodges and an inspired burst from interchange forward Todd Wilson laid the platform for the sides win.
Coach Luke Williamson will be pleased with the sides commitment in defence in the second half, however will want the side to pick up from the first whistle after the Cutters found going easy early on.
Drew Hutchinson opened the scoring in the seventh minute, crossing over way too easy after some sloppy one-on-one defence. Hutchinson converted his own try.
The Sea eagles were lucky not to go down shortly after, if not for Williams’s great try-saving effort on the line. However, he couldn’t replicate it again in the 18th minute with the Cutters going in untouched out wide.
Tyron Andrews tried to life the boys rag-dolling the Cutters winger and in the next set of play, Jayden Hodges almost burrowed over for the sides first of the afternoon.
The Cutters moved down the field easily for most of the first half due to silly penalties and errors from the home side, and went in again to the right of the uprights to extend the lead to 16-0 after 28 minutes.
But that’s when things started to turn.
Back to back Todd Wilson breaks set up the first points of the afternoon with Kurt Aldridge the beneficiary of his work. Then immediately of the kick-off Brayden Wiliame burst through and found Dom Reardon who was going all the way only to be ankle tapped, but some how miraculously getting an offload to the prowling Wolfman to score under the posts.
Halftime and the Cutters were up by four, 16 points to 12.
The second period stared horrendously with the Sea Eagles stripped off the kick off for the Cutters to score and extend their lead to 20-12.
But from there on in, it was the maroon and white. The northern beaches side ran in 20 unanswered points through converted tries to Williams, Hodges and Fritz wrapping up a fortunate result for the men from Manly.
FULLTIME: Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 32 – 12 Illawara Cutters
