A gutsy Manly Warringah Sea Eagles side have held on to claim a 24-18 victory over the Newcastle Knights in round 14 of the Jersey Flegg Cup in Newcastle.
Match: Knights v Sea Eagles
Round 14 -
home Team
Knights
10th Position
away Team
Sea Eagles
12th Position
Venue: Newcastle Knights COE, Newcastle
The Sea Eagles banded together to score three tries in the opening 30 minutes for an 18-6 lead at the break.
Newcastle mounted a comeback but were limited to two tries in the second half thanks to Manly’s tiresome defence.
The Sea Eagles led for a majority of the match, with the scores level for ten minutes in the first half. Their try in the 59th minute was enough to secure the two competition points.
A deflected kick at the halfway mark worked in the favour of the Sea Eagles, who darted down the right sideline to score through Benjamin O’Keefe after one minute for a 6-0 lead.
The Knights bounced back with a quick shift and a perfectly timed pass to send Marcus Dacre over in the left corner nine minutes later to level the scores at 6-all.
Momentum continued to shift as Manly broke through to re-gain the lead in the 22nd minute. Forward Simione Laiafi bumped off one defender and took another with him as he scored under the posts for a 12-6 lead.
The Sea Eagles scored their third six minutes later with a touch of pure genius. Hooker Zaidas Muagututia chipped the ball over the defence metres out from the line and it deflected off the crossbar and into the direction of TJ Herring, who dived on the ball under the posts for an 18-6 scoreline.
Manly flexed their defensive muscle in the final ten minutes of the half, denying a handful of tries to maintain their 12-point lead at the break.
The home side found a gap in the defence and broke through to score in the 51st minute through five-eighth Cullen Gray to cut the deficit to 18-12.
Sea Eagles’ five-eighth Jacob Yow broke through the defence just inside enemy territory off a perfect pass by Muagututia and found himself in open space. Yow fooled the full-back with a step and scored next to the posts to push his side’s lead out to 24-12 with 18 minutes to play.
Newcastle set up a grandstand finish to the match, with a cut-out pass sending Dacre over for his second try in the 70th minute for a 24-18 scoreline.
Manly held out a relentless and desperate Knights’ side in the final ten minutes to claim a six-point victory.
The Sea Eagles take on the Wests Tigers in round 15 of the Jersey Flegg Cup on Saturday June 14 at Lidcombe Oval.
