Manly Sea Eagles prop Addin Fonua-Blake

Flying high and expected to win, it instead went the other way as the Manly Sea Eagles snapped the South Sydney Rabbitohs unbeaten start to the year.

In the end, it came down to a field goal from Daly Cherry-Evans in golden point to hand Manly the win.

The sour note out of it all, however, is a re-occurrence of a hamstring injury for fullback Tom Trbojevic.

Although the severity is unknown, it does not bode well given he missed the first two rounds with the same injury.

Before his injury, it was Tom Trbojevic who scored the game’s first try.

Taking the line on, he slid past Sam Burgess and powered his way over as Manly took a surprise lead.

Souths would slowly wrestle back momentum and took the lead towards the end of the first half.

Sam Burgess got his revenge when he powered over for a try of his own to level things up.

Try as they might, the next chance to extend their lead failed to arise until the 35th minute when Campbell Graham arrived.

He finished off a set play that saw him slice through the line and over to score.

Not long into the second half, Tom Trbojevic pulled up lame and many expected that Manly would throw in the towel.

That was not the case; instead, they dug deep and dug hard, pushing Souths to their limits.

The reward came when Manase Fainu pounced on an errant pass and weaved his way through the Souths defence.

As both sides went tit-for-tat, eager to get a win, the game made its way towards golden point.

Missed field goals from Souths half Adam Reynolds proved costly as, when given the chance, Cherry-Evans slotted one over.

That proved all she wrote, as Souths winning streak ended and Manly’s confidence grows.

Not one to mince words, Manly coach Des Hasler knows injuries are, sadly, a part of the game.

“Look, it’s part and parcel of the game,” Hasler said.

“I felt sorry for the young fellow.

“He’s worked hard on the injury and he does it tough on the sideline too. So he’s going to have to do it a little bit tougher for a bit longer.”

As for their win, Hasler knows how crucial it was for his side.

“It was an important win for us,” Hasler said.

“It was an entertaining game where there was probably 21 reasons why we shouldn’t have won the game and one reason why we did.”

Also an honest coach, Wayne Bennett simply lamented his side’s lack of attitude and desire.

“I just thought we got what we deserved,” Bennett said.

“We were average. It was the attitude today that killed them.

“We’ve been heading in that direction – our performances have been getting worse since we played game one.

“We haven’t played a game for 80 minutes yet.”

NRL News Player of the Game

3. Addin Fonua-Blake

2. Sam Burgess

  1. Tom Trbojevic

By ricky

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