Sea Eagles 24 Defeat Rabbitohs 8
18 Apr 2009
The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles have defeated the South Sydney Rabbitohs 24 points to 8 at ANZ Stadium tonight (Saturday) in front of 14,225 Members and supporters.
Sea Eagles centre Jamie Lyon scored 16 points including the Sea Eagles first two tries in a complete display.
For the Rabbitohs, Craig Wing scored a fantastic individual try, brushing away four defenders on his way to the line, with Nathan Merritt scoring an 80 metre run away try in the dying minutes.
The Sea Eagles led 18-nil at the break, with Lyon nabbing two tries and fullback Brett Stewart scoring the first of two six minutes before the break.
The Rabbitohs had a few attacking opportunities in the first half, but poor handling and weaker defence than usual curtailed any chances of scoring. Beau Champion was help over the line in the final minute of the half, only to be denied by the video referee.
The Rabbitohs struck first in the second stanza, with Wing scoring his try in the 49th minute of play. Wing scooted to the left hand side of the ruck and held off four defenders to score.
Manly struck back three minutes later through Brett Stewart, with Lyon’s fourth conversion giving the away side a 24-4 lead with 25 minutes remaining on the clock.
In the 77th minute of play, Beau Champion took an intercept then turned the ball inside to Merritt who raced 80 metres to score, taking the scoreline to a final 24-8 win to the visitors.
Rabbitohs Head Coach Jason Taylor said the Rabbitohs gave the Eagles too many opportunities.
“And you can give a team like them those opportunities. You’ll never win the game,” Taylor said.
“We felt good before the game, but we made it too hard for ourselves. We had to make too many tackles.
“Our defence wasn’t up to our usual standard tonight, and they dominated field position which made it tough for us.
“A couple of times we turned the ball over four times in a row. You can’t do that in the NRL.
“Of the positives, I thought Chris Sandow carried the ball well and took on the line more tonight. We did a lot of work during the week about not losing Chrissy from our game, and he stood up in that aspect tonight.
“They were strong right across the field. They made it tough for us.”
Rabbitohs captain Roy Asotasi said: “They had a lot of ball and when they get that they’ll make you pay.”
“We made some crucial mistakes, and you can’t that much ball.”
Rabbitohs tryscorer Craig wing said: “Our ball control let us down tonight and that’s something I’m sure we’ll be working on before next Friday night.”
The Rabbitohs move on to play the Cronulla Sharks next Friday night 24 April at ANZ Stadium at 7:35pm.
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 24 (Jamie Lyon 2, Brett Stewart 2 tries; Jamie Lyon 4 goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 8 (Craig Wing, Nathan Merritt tries)
In the Toyota Cup, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles ran out convincing 42 points to 16 winners over the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
The Sea Eagles scored four tries to two in the first half to set up the victory, with Rabbitohs five-eighth Matt Mundine scoring the team’s first try in his comeback game from injury.
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 42 (Liam Higgins 2, Michael Oldfield 2, Daly Cherry-Evans, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Chris Stolk, Michael Tiopira tries; Daly Cherry-Evans 2, Blake Davey 2, Mitch Porter goals)
defeated
South Sydney Rabbitohs 16 (Matt Mundine, Brock Molan, Kane Morgan tries; Junior Vaivai 2 goals)