The Sea Eagles suffered their first loss of the new season on Sunday, defeated 44-18 by the Canberra Raiders at 4 Pines Park.
Match: Sea Eagles v Raiders
Round 3 -
home Team
Sea Eagles
5th Position
away Team
Raiders
2nd Position
Venue: 4 Pines Park, Sydney
The home side staged a mini comeback after being down 32-6 at half time but couldn’t match it with the undefeated Raiders.
Canberra crossed after five minutes when Patrick Broe found himself on the end of a simple overlap on the left.
Raiders forward Jai Purser then burst through a gap on the right edge to score from about 30 metres out to have his team up 10-0 after 11 minutes.
They were ion again a few minutes later, this time it was their right winger Siamani Leuluai collecting a kick in the northeaster corner.
Soon it was 20-nil to the Raiders, creating an overlap on their left for Broe to bag his second.
Manly scored their first try of the match 10 minutes out from half time when the Raiders dropped the ball off a kick return. Left centre Antonio Taufa was there to collect the fumble and put his team on the board.
Replacement forward Owen Hromow burst over the line from close range to give his team a 20-point buffer, and a try on the stroked of half time had the visitors up 32-6 at the break.
Manly scored back-to-back tries in the second half to momentarily keep them in the contest, one off a neat in goal kick from Joey Walsh.
But the Raiders hit back with two tries of their own to round off a comprehensive 44-18 victory.
