Marlins Too Much For Toothless Beasts

Round 16 Match Report: By Paul Cook

Manly have maintained their charge for second spot and a week off in the finals after beating an unconvincing Eastern Suburbs 28-20 at Manly Oval. In what was a catch up game from the weekends washed out fixtures, the two sides faced off under floodlights but despite the near perfect conditions for football, neither side were able to produce anything like their best on the night.

Ranked second and third before the weekend, their relative displays would have done little to leave either leaders Eastwood or the fast improving Sydney University, quaking in their boots. In the end, the Marlins had the greater fluidity and in Willie Ripia, the more creative spark to unlock an opposition defence in a three tries to two victory.

It was Manly that made the better start, bossing the forward battle, being keener and cleaner at the breakdown and with Ripia mixing up his game nicely with grubbers, bombs and rapier like passes along the line.

The two sides traded penalties through Ripia and Brendan McKibbin before the hosts made the significant breakthrough in the 22nd minute. The Beasts scrambled well to thwart a speedy Manly attack but conceded the penalty and the next phase saw Ripia put up a cross-field kick for Lui Siale who patted it down for the waiting Neil Meyer to pounce in the corner.

Ripia couldn’t compliment his good work with a conversion but at 8-3, the Marlins were on top while the Beasties were yet to get out of first gear. However, as the half drew to a close, Manly had somehow failed to add to their tally and convert their ascendancy into points, either through impatient attack or from the bullish defensive effort of the visitors.

Like a boxer on the ropes whose opponent fails to land the knockout blow, Easts confidence grew as a result of Manly’s profligacy and they started to gain a foothold in the match and gain some territory. With McKibbin calling the shots and no.10 Dion Taumata coming into the game more and more, they served notice of their increasing threat when a terrific break by Kuki Maafu set Damon Anderson away but Manly’s cover defence snuffed out the danger.

Four minutes from the break, a neatly executed grubber from Taumata created a photo finish of offside defenders and McKibbin lined up for what – by his standards – was a ‘gimme’ penalty. However, an uncharacteristic miss from the Waratahs no.9 would have left Manly head coach Tim Lane relieved. A 2pt buffer at half-time would have borne little reflection to the balance of play and he was understandably happy with the desire shown by his charges:

“We actually played very well but Easts defended very well. We played with a lot of intent, kept the ball well but coughed up a few soft turnovers and that’s great credit to them. Just because you run good plays and good lines, it doesn’t guarantee you a score. Defensively, they were very good and that’s what we expected, with second playing third, it’s not going to be a cakewalk.”

Easts, no doubt buoyed by their improvement before the break, came out with renewed vim an vigour for the second forty and almost went over from the restart with Manly turning over to clear at the last moment. However, it wasn’t long before they got their reward, a succession of pick and drives in the 45th minute ended with Pauli Taumoepeau going low to find the line between a forest of legs, the powerful no.8 proving once again what a scavenger he is with the chalk in sight.

McKibbin’s conversion gave the visitors a 10-8 lead and it seemed that they’d finally settled into something resembling their best form, however, as the rest of their season testifies, they rarely sustain any dominance for longer than 20 minute spells and such was the case here. With the result at their mercy, they just couldn’t put any more points on the board and eventually retreated back into their shells, lapsed back into bad habits and left the door ajar.

Manly don’t need much invitation to walk right in and crash the party and JP Du Plessis did just that in the 57th minute when he broke the first tackle, stretched his legs into the Beasts’ 22, stepped and offloaded for Michael Hooper to take over and cross near the posts. Ripia added the extras and subsequent successful penalties for both teams left the hosts in front at 18-13.

A game that had drifted along without ever really engaging suddenly burst into life with two tries in 6 minutes as Manly tried to close out the result and Easts tried to snatch a lifeline from their flagging performance. It looked all over when Ben Seymour zipped a defence splitter into the path of former Easts full-back Jacob Woodhouse who stepped and fended his way past two unforgivably soft tackles to find the line.

However, cometh the hour, cometh the man and with his side needing to produce something and quickly, Brendan McKibbin – as he has done on so many occasions for the Beasts – rose to the challenge by throwing a dummy and sniping for the line from 5 metres.

With both tries successfully converted, it was all set up for a grandstand finish but despite Easts running the ball for multiple phases after the bell, Manly weren’t to be outdone and they patiently waited for the right time to pounce and force the turnover. Rubbing salt into the wound, they won a penalty in the process and Ripia struck to deny the visitors what could be a precious bonus point come the final ladder.

Manly 28 (Neil Meyer, Mike Hooper, Jacob Woodhouse tries; Willia Ripia 2 cons, 3 pens) d Eastern Suburbs 20 (Pauliasi Taumoepeau, Brendan McKibbin tries; Brendan McKibbin 2 cons, 2 pens) at Manly Oval Referee: Andrew Lees

Final Thoughts…

Manly flyhalf Willie Ripia:

“I think the depth in the club’s quite good and that’s going to count on Saturday. I don’t think many guys our age play two games in a span of three or four days, back when I was a young kid I would have, I would have enjoyed it but not anymore. Guys are bigger and stronger now so you get hurt a lot easier!

“It’s an understatement to say I’m loving it here, it’s awesome. It’s a lot different to back home and home’s just a 2hr flight from here and not too far from Perth – and there’s heaps of Kiwis around!”

Eastern Suburbs head coach Lachie Fear:

“We’re yet to play a good game. The pleasing thing about what we’re doing at the moment is that with five minutes to go, we’re in the games to win it and yet we’ve done the minimum all game to be in that position. Our effort’s always reasonable but our ability to act when things need to be done isn’t there, we’re just a step behind. It wasn’t a good enough performance today and we were still a chance to win it.

“I think second place has gone for us to be honest. We’ve got a good run coming home including Warringah, Parra, Gordon, Penrith and Wests so, if we can get our game to a place where we would like it to be then you’d have to say it’s a favourable draw for us. However, there’s good teams in that bottom six and we’re still going to have to turn up every weekend.”

Manly head coach Tim Lane:

“I think in the last couple of years, we’ve probably peaked a little bit early but we’ve changed a few things and we’re hopefully peaking at the right time. We’ve got a tough run home, the last three games are Sydney Uni, Randwick and Norths so we need to be in good shape. We’ve just got to manage a few injuries and work around these ‘great’ Super 15 tours that are going around at the moment and depleting us but we’ll bounce back.

“It’s tough playing on a Wednesday, we had issues with some of the Brumbies players not being available so it’s been a tough couple of days and we’ve thrown it together and scratched it pretty well and we’re pretty happy to come away with the points.”