Manly slice up Rabbitohs in Harvey Norman win

Five tries to hard-hitting centre Lavinia Tauhalaliku has seen the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles breeze past the South Sydney Rabbitohs 28-4 in round six of the Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership this afternoon. 

After a tough 18-10 loss to the ladder-leading Magpies side last week, the Sea Eagles were looking to bounce back in just their third home game at 4 Pines Park. And the girls did just that. 

The Sea Eagles shot out to a 12-0 lead at the break and continued to pile the points on their opponents in the second half as they outscored the Rabbitohs seven tries to one on a proud day for the club. 

The 28 points is the most points the side has scored in a game in their debut season in the open age women's competition, eclipsing the previous best tally of 24 points against the Knights and the Dragons.

Manly fielded a reshuffled team with Shontelle Stowers was replaced at centre by second-rower Aleksandra Tunufai. Mollie Tagaloa was named at full-back, with Tauhalaliku taking her place at centre. Mahina-Maara Manapori slided into the second-rower position. 

Tauhalaliku had no issue with the positional change, scoring the club’s first ever hat-trick in the competition in just 11 minutes of the first half and adding a fourth try to her tally in the second half.

Manly opened their account through Tauhalaliku in the eighth minute off the back of a strong run from lock Lili Boyle. A fast play the ball from Boyle allowed for a shift to the left edge for Tauhalaliku to take on two players before grounding the ball in the corner for a 4-0 lead. 

Tauhalaliku crossed for her second try seven minutes later as the Sea Eagles pushed their lead out to 8-0 after she carried several players across the line for the try. 

The Manly side ran rampant as Tauhalaliku completed her hat-trick four minutes later in sensational fashion. Half-back Tayla Montgomery ran at the line and threw a short ball to Tauhalaliku, who busted out of a tackle to reach out and ground the ball on the line for a 12-0 scoreline. 

South Sydney winger Shanelle Lyons scored in the 36th minute after a quick shift to the edge to cut the deficit to 12-4. 

Manly quickly bounced back as Tauhalaliku showed sheer pace to cross for her fourth try in the 48th minute for a 16-4 scoreline. 

After saving a try six minutes earlier, Tunufai switched from defence to attack to score in the right corner in the 53rd minute. The centre took possession inside the 10 metre line to run straight over two defenders to score for a 20-4 lead.

The Sea Eagles attack had no signs of slowing down as winger Pier Pritchard dived over in the corner three minutes later after some quick passes to extend the lead to 24-4. 

Tauhalaliku continued to tear apart South Sydney’s defence as she scored her fifth try after a good run down the sideline to score in the corner for a 28-4 scoreline with seven minutes remaining.

Manly Coach Keith Hanley was naturally pleased for Tauhalaliku whilst remaining cautious over the win.

“We’ve been trying to work out a way to get her more of the footy and maybe going forward, it’ll be hard to argue that centre is her position,'' Hanley said.

“In terms of dominance, I thought we were fairly decent. The scoreline probably didn’t reflect that with our errors and not being able to convert. But I think there were some really pleasing efforts with some of the smaller things we’ve been concentrating on like fast play the balls and working harder from marker when we’re defending. I thought these were all reasonably evident today.”

The fifth placed Sea Eagles now take on the sixth placed Mounties at Aubrey Keech Reserve, Hinchinbrook, on Sunday, August 17, at 1pm. Both teams sit on seven points with three wins and a draw with the top five teams contesting the finals.

"We’ll have a look at today’s game and some of the areas we weren’t so good. Obviously, we were lacking a bit of cohesion when we were in good ball,'' Hanley added.

"So, we will do some work on our inside ten shape with our middles and we’ll look at how we can be more effective creating space on our edges. And like I said, we’ll try to build a more cohesive picture before next week.”

The Colormaker Industries Player of the Match went to Tauhalaliku for her her five-try haul. 

Sea Eagles 28 (Tauhalaliku 5, Tunufai, Pritchard tries; Eli 0/7 goals) d Rabbitohs 4 (Lyons try).