The Manly Sea Eagles have scraped past the Canberra Raiders, with a Daly Cherry-Evans field goal providing them with a 19-18 victory at Suncorp Stadium.
Despite being named earlier in the week, star fullback Tom Trbojevic was ruled out of the clash pre-game after suffering a facial injury last weekend.
Conversely, the Raiders welcomed back their fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad after an extended recovery from a neck injury sustained earlier in the season.
Ricky Stuart’s men flew out of the blocks and captured the lead after eleven minutes through Harley Smith-Shields.
The Raiders’ winger was the beneficiary of a beautiful pass from Matt Timoko, who drew Tevita Funa before slipping a right-handed flick to his outside man.
Canberra soon extended their lead as halves Sam Williams and Jack Wighton combined in a right-to-left shift that saw Bailey Simonsson dive over in the corner.
It was the winger’s fourth try in two weeks following his hat-trick last weekend against the Melbourne Storm.
The Raiders would carry their twelve point advantage into the half-time break.
Haumole Olakau’atu kickstarted Manly’s attack in the second half as he crashed past three Canberra defenders to score his side’s first points of the evening.
Morgan Harper managed to level the scores fifteen minutes later after a wild play that involved Daly Cherry-Evans placing a backwards kick.
The bouncing ball found its way into the hands of Jason Saab, who offloaded to his centre before Harper stepped past two defenders and could not be stopped by fullback Jordan Rapana.
The match-winning try appeared to have been scored by Curtis Sironen, who crashed onto a grubber kick from Daly Cherry-Evans to give his side a six-point advantage late in the contest.
When Cherry-Evans kicked a field goal with under two minutes to play, the contest appeared to be over.
However, a try to the returning Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad with 37 seconds left on the clock provided the Raiders with one final chance to win the match.
Their chances improved when Josh Schuster was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul and the Raiders were marched down the field and into field goal territory.
However, the ball found its way into the hands of Jordan Rapana, whose attempt never looked close to threatening the posts.
The miss sealed a tight win for Des Hasler’s side, who have temporarily jumped the Roosters into fourth place on the ladder. The men from Bondi will have a chance to reclaim their place on Sunday, where the bookies expect them to easily account for a struggling St George Illawarra outfit.
For the Raiders, the difficulty of making the top eight has been increased with remaining games against the Warriors and the Roosters appearing as must-win clashes.
The Raiders will again appear in the 6pm time slot next Friday, while the Sea Eagles will have to wait until Sunday afternoon for their chance to take on the last-placed Bulldogs.
NRL News Player of the Game:
3 Points – Daly Cherry Evans – 2 try assists, 1 field goal.
2 Points – Matt Timoko – 1 try assist, 1 try contribution, 2 line break assists.
1 Point – Moses Suli – 1 line break, 11 tackle busts, 208 metres on 18 carries.