Sea Eagles swoop in second half to dowse Eels fight

The Sea Eagles came swooping home at 4 Pines Park against the Eels, running in late tries to down their rivals in an entertaining 32-18 win.

The game was in the balance until the final moments where the home side pulled away to flatter them on the scoreboard, with Parramatta putting in a much bigger fight than they showed in their loss last week to the Dolphins. 

Eels winger Maika Sivo also crossed for a hat-trick after being recalled to the side, but will be contemplating his choices after being sent to the sin bin late in the second half as his side were mounting a comeback, with Manly instead able to put the game to bed with late tries. 

It was a game with plenty of feeling, with the sold-out crowd not only seeing some good tries, but some heavy defence, with big hits punctuating the play all night.

The Eels were the first on the board with Clint Gutherson kicking a penalty goal, with the opportunity granted after Haumole Olakau'atu was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle on Shaun Lane. The Eels could not capitalise any further on the big forward's absence from the field, with Manly managing to keep the visitors away from the tryline. 

The Sea Eagles had the first proper chance to score the first try of the game with Jason Saab attempting to cross in the right corner, but was denied after his leg was over the sideline. Instead, it was the Eels who scored first after not letting a play die, with Sivo finishing off a backline play, after a late offload from Morgan Harper set him up for the first of his three tries. 

The Sea Eagles were on the board next, with their try coming from a good Matt Lodge pass out to Luke Brooks, who put in a deft kick to Tommy Talau who dove over the line to score. 

Reuben Garrick kicked the conversion to draw the scores level, but they didn't stay that way for long, with Sivo over for his second soon after. The Eels winger put in a strong run to charge to the line after his side cashed in on an offside penalty.

The Eels went further in front when they went in on the opposite corner, with Bailey Simonsson flying over after a line break from Will Penisini set him up. Gutherson wasn't able to convert any of the first-half tries, but the Eels still went to the break with a 14-6 lead.  

The Sea Eagles needed to score first in the second half and they did. Skipper Daly Cherry-Evans set up the play with a great dummy and pass out to his right across the face of two players out to Saab, who raced down the sideline before passing back on his inside to Tom Trbojevic to score. 

This set the spark for Manly to mount their comeback, with the side posting back-to-back tries after a Nathan Brown pass to Jake Trbojevic put him into a gap, with the lock then finding Cherry-Evans coming up with speed behind him to accept the ball and run over to score. The try put his side in the lead for the first time in the game, with Garrick's conversion getting them out to 18-14. 

The action didn't slow down with line breaks and big runs as well as forced errors keeping the game close, but Manly edged further in front to lead 20-14 with a penalty goal after Eels centre Penisini was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul for tackling Tom Trbojevic without the ball as he was chasing a kick and looked to be on his way to score. 

The Eels then managed to score a try despite being a man down, with a kick left to bounce and not cleaned up by the Sea Eagles. The scraps were instead picked up by the Eels who went left out to Sivo to get his hat-trick. However, the Eels again could not convert, with Dylan Brown this time having his attempt waved away to trail 20-18 with just over 13 minutes left in the match. 

They then undid all of their good work when Parramatta winger Sivo was put on report and sent to the sin bin for unnecessary contact with Garrick's head after completing a tackle.

The Sea Eagles made sure to target his wing and Garrick went over for a try after Olakau'atu put in a strong run to set him up for the first of his two back-to-back tries. 

Manly thought they had one more to Olakau'atu, but were denied by the Bunker for being offside. However, they had well and truly done the damage to condemn the Eels to another loss.