Manly run away from Titans
July 5, 2008
The Manly Sea Eagles flew north to take on the Gold Coast Titans at Skilled Park. The Titans were without some key players including Scott Prince who broke his arm in game 3 of the State of Origin and Luke Bailey.
In the first half both teams put on an entertaining match with good ball movement and solid defence. The Gold Coast were first to score when a good pass saw Anthony Laffranchi given enough space to make it to the try line in the 9th minute.
The Sea Eagles hit back in the 14th minute when Steven Bell crossed in the 14th minute. Another try followed to Steve Menzies who just keeps on showing age does not slow him down. The half time score was 12-6 to the Sea Eagles.
A penalty and a converted try saw the home team take a 14-12 lead by the 53rd minute. At this stage of the match you would have given it to either team.
A mistake by the Gold Coast when they should have cleaned up a Manly kick was what ultmately seemed to turn the match. Manly took advantage by scoring a try through Jamie Lyons in the 63rd minute and then the floodgates opened.
Three more tries followed as David Williams went over and a Brett Stewart double saw the score blowout to 34-14. On face value you would think Manly had the match under control howevr it was there for the Gold Coast to win with around 12 minutes left.
The win sees Manly sitting at the top of the NRL ladder while the Gold Coast continues a slide down to 7th at the moment. The will need to work hard to turn around their recent poor form where they are 1-4 from the last five matches.
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