Match Report: Round 23 vs Raiders

On a very cold night in Canberra Manly started hot but finished on the end of a five-tries to-two defeat.

The Sea Eagles looked slick early on posting first points of the match in just the third minute.

It was a risky play that delivered the perfect reward for Tom Trbojevic who collected the near length of the field four-pointer. 

It started with a shift inside Manly's own 10 metre line with Tolu Koula breaking the Raiders right edge defence then kicking infield for Turbo to do the rest.

The try was backed up with a repeat set on the next set, to give the visitors good momentum in the opening minutes.

About 10 minutes later after working their way downfield courtesy of a penalty at the ruck, Jamal Fogarty provided the pass for Ethan Strange who stepped inside Manly’s right edge defenders to level the score at 6-6.

The Raiders were in again in the 15th minute, gaining good field position on the back of another penalty, this time for a high tackle.

Right wing Xavier Savage then found himself on the end of a three-on-two to score in the north-eastern corner. The conversion was unsuccessful from the sideline to leave the Raiders up 10-6.

A few minutes later Canberra found themselves down a man when Kaeo Weekes was sent to the sin for a professional foul on Luke Brooks, but Manly were unable to exploit their one-man advantage.

Manly had quite a few chances in the first half but were unable to convert back-to-back sets into points, trailing 10-6 at the break.

After setting up the Sea Eagles first try, Koula scored himself six minutes into the second half, beating four defenders by cutting in from the left edge, to put his team ahead 12-10.

Unfortunately for Manly, that was to be their final scoring play the match.

A few minutes later Canberra five-eighth Strange scored his second try, darting from dummy half to beat a few sleepy defenders on the short side, going over from range.

Fifteen minutes into the second half Strange bagged his third to put the Raiders up 22-12.

Again it was Manly’s right edge that was under assault when a clever pass from wing Jed Stuart found Strange, who did the rest.

From the kick restart the damage continued for Manly when Jake Trbojevic was taken from the field with a category one HIA. 

Trbojevic suffered a heavy collision when trying to put a dent in Josh Papalii, before crashing into teammate Siua Taukeiaho.

Canberra stretched their lead to 16 points with about 16 minutes remaining when Sebastian Kris swooped on a wayward pass from Jazz Tevaga and raced away to score.

Manly fought hard against a very good Raiders team which sits at the of the ladder, succumbing to their eleventh loss of the season.