The Penrith Panthers remain on top of the NRL competition ladder after a seventh straight win on Thursday night away to the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.
Result
Penrith Panthers 24
Tries: (4) Stephen Crichton 7th, 39th; Sunia Turuva 45th; Brian To’o 63rd
Goals: (4) Nathan Cleary 8th, 40th, 47th, 53rd
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 12
Tries: (2) Toafofoa Sipley 18th, Reuben Garrick 26th
Goals: (2) Reuben Garrick 20th, 27th
Report
Manly started off quite brightly against the Panthers, and probably should have scored from a Josh Schuster length-of-the-field breakaway in the first five minutes, but a few minutes later the Panthers showed them how it is done as intercept specialist Stephen Crichton snapped up a Manly pass in his own half and scored untouched to give Penrith an early 6-0.
The Sea Eagles continued to press Penrith and got a reward when Toafofoa Sipley bulldozed his way through three Panthers defenders close to the line to level the scores at the 20th minute mark. Manly stunned the competition leaders in the 26th minute when Reuben Garrick burst through close to the line off a Daly Cherry-Evans pass to score and take the lead 12-6.
Penrith scored just before half-time to level the scores going into the break, but it was contentious. The end result saw Crichton score his second try of the match, the centre taking advantage of a bullet-like 20 metre pass from Soni Luke to Scott Sorenson to score with ease in the corner. The talking point was the play before when a chasing Liam Martin looked to clearly knock the ball on in the contest.
Some fireworks to start the second half as Dean Matterson was put on report for a swinging arm on a falling Liam Martin. Friendly fire from the same tackle saw Ben Trbojevic leave the field for a HIA. Within a minute a second Manly player was being assessed when Brad Parker slammed his head into the turf as part of a regular tackle. Both failed, and the 18th man Jake Arthur was called upon.
Manly turned back the clock not long after when Reuben Garrick attempted a kicking duel by booting the ball back to Penrith from his kick return. Sadly for the home fans Dylan Edwards didn’t return the favour and quickly got his side on the attack: after a few passes Sunia Turuva made his way through in broken play and ran 60 metres to score under the posts, with a bonus forearm which started a minor scuffle. Penrith extended the gap to eight points with a penalty five minutes later to lead 20-12.
Manly had enough chances to get themselves back into the game, but the mistakes grew, giving the Panthers a sniff to close out the game. Which Penrith did in the 63rd minute when Brian To’o scored in the corner after a simple move to the right. Nathan Cleary missed the sideline conversion the leave the door open for Manly with a 12-point deficit with 15 minutes to go. That door was closed to Manly as their mistakes continued, and Penrith tightened up and gave them nothing. The final score of 24-12 was a pretty fair reflection of the game.
Penrith are all but guaranteed a top two place now, and an ominous sign for other teams is that there appears to be more to come on the field. They have only conceded 18 points in their last three games.
Manly tried their hardest to unsettle the Panthers with various tactics, but once they fell behind in the second half, they were unlikely to budge such a tough defensive side, and constant errors didn’t help either.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR POINTS
Embed from Getty Images3 – Stephen Crichton (Panthers)
2 – Sunia Turuva (Panthers)
1 – Daly Cherry-Evans (Sea Eagles)
