The ladder would suggest a stark gap between the two sides but the lowly Manly Sea Eagles have stunned the high-flying Cronulla Sharks with a late field goal.
Evenly poised at 32-all, it was Daly Cherry-Evans who stepped up to the plate and coolly slotted the winning field goal for a 33-32 Manly win.
The game was somewhat of a see-sawing affair with 10 tries scored over the course of the match.
It was the Sharks who drew first blood as Valentine Holmes continued his rich vein of form scoring yet another try.
Manly would soon hit back, however, with Eels bound Shaun Lane nabbing the first of his two tries.
Having set up the Holmes try, Wade Graham got himself on the scoresheet to again put the Sharks ahead.
The sides then traded tries across the back end of the first half and start of the second half.
Jesse Ramien and Aaron Woods scoring for the Sharks and Shaun Lane’s 2nd and Tom Trbojevic scoring for Manly.
The Sharks seemingly had the match in the bag late on as they lead 32-26 but with just a couple of minutes to go, the complexity changed.
It was Cherry-Evans who put in a perfectly weighted grubber that saw back-rower Joel Thompson score. The conversion was good and the scores were locked at 32-apiece.
Performing much better than many expected after last week’s loss to Penrith, the Sea Eagles ultimately came out the victors.
The string of losses against Manly continues for the Sharks as well; they have only won two of last seventeen games between the sides.
Kicking the winning field goal with his non-favoured left foot, Cherry-Evans admits that he was lucky to slot it home.
“It was pretty lucky,” the Manly skipper said.
“[I was] disappointed I missed the first one in regulation time so it was nice to get a second chance.
Often in rugby league you don’t get a second chance, so I was really lucky to get the ball first and got into position to kick one.”
There was no holding back by Shane Flanagan, who lambasted his side for allowing the opposition to win and score 33 points.
“We shouldn’t have allowed them to score the 33 points,” Flanagan said.
“We should have been better than that but good luck to them – they deserved to win.
“In theory, you win your next four games you’re a chance but if we play like that, we’re not going to win our next four games.”
Player of the Game:
3. Shaun Lane
2. Daly Cherry-Evans
- Valentine Holmes.