Manly Leagues suffered a 20-12 loss to leaders Wentworthville Magpies in a see-sawing contest in the Sydney Shield at 4 Pines Park today.
In what was Manly Leagues' first ever home game at Brookvale, the Anthony Watmough coached side had plenty of chances in the first half but their lack of polish saw them trailing 10-0 at half-time.
Manly Leagues showed a lot of heart in the second half with two tries to get back within four before the Magpies scored in the final five minutes to rip the hope away from the home side.
Wentworthville opened up the scoring in the 18th minute through a try to inger Josh Delailoa, who burrowed his way underneath the defence from dummy half.
Consecutive penalties put Manly Leagues on the attack in the 10th minute. They let a chance go begging when hooker Thomas Thelander skipped out of dummy half to find forward Marco Severino with a shortball that was ruled forward.
Against the run of play, the Magpies stretched their lead to 10 through an intercept on their own try line by five-eighth Jake Christian, who found his winger Isikeli Laqekoro who ran 80 metres to score.
Manly Leagues finally crossed through centre Alton Naiyep. Halfback Jake Smith threw a beautiful short ball for his centre who burst through a hole to run 30 metres untouched. Winger Lachlan Burt converted from the sideline for a 10-6 scoreline after 59 minutes of play.
Unfortunately, the Magpies pushed their lead back out to 10 through Laqekoro who crossed for his second.
Manly refused to fall away crossing in the 70th minute through Oscar Warner, who received the ball in a left edge shift before throwing a dummy, and stepping through the Magpies line defence to score in the corner. Burt would convert from the sideline to cut the Magpies lead to four with nine minutes remaining.
Wentwothville put the final nail in the coffin in the 76th minute through winger Josh Delailoa for a 20-12 scoreline.
The Sea Eagles take on St Marys in round seven of the Sydney Shield on Saturday May 4, at 2pm at 4 Pines Park.
Wentworthville 20 (Josh Delailoa 16’, Isikeli Laqekoro 39’, Isikely Laqekoro 63’, Josh Delailoa 76’ .Goals: Austin Quast 0/1, Jake Christian 2/3) def Sea Eagles 12 (Tries: Alton Naiyep 57’, Oskar Warner 70’. Goals: Lachlan Burt 2/2)
