Manly Sea Eagles defeat Parramatta Eels 34-30 to keep their perfect start to the NRL season.
With a 34–30 victory at Brookvale Oval, Manly survived a late comeback from a winless Parramatta to maintain their perfect record in the NRL.
Josh Schuster had a hand in four tries in his maiden game as Manly’s full-time number six, combining freely with Tom Trbojevic on the Sea Eagles’ left edge.
Even though the last ten minutes of the game included four tries in total from both sides, it was still enough to condemn the Eels to their third straight loss to begin the season.
With seven minutes remaining, the Sea Eagles were leading 28-16, but tries from Maika Sivo and Josh Hodgson allowed the Eels to get back into the game.
After Haumole Olakau’atu intercepted a J’maine Hopgood offload and sprinted 30 meters to score and make it 34–24, it looked as though the home team had won the game.
With two minutes remaining, Sivo gave the Eels another goal; however, any chance of a last-minute victory were dashed when Brad Parker tackled Mitch Moses into touch.
The fact that all three of the Eels lost by four points or fewer summed up a wild evening and the grand finalist’s beginning to the season last year.
Eels captain Clint Gutherson was perhaps the greatest player on the field, as he helped Parramatta come back from a 14-0 deficit to a 16–14 lead in the second half by scoring two tries and converting a touchdown.
But Schuster, who is 21 years old, was Manly’s star of the show.
The Sea Eagles’ first two tries came from the five-eighth and Trbojevic together. The first was when they spread it down the left, and the second was when they knocked over Reuben Garrick.
The following time, Trbojevic was the one who benefited as Schuster raced the ball out of dummy half and found the fullback on his inside to quickly cross the line and score.
Then, following Gutherson’s valiant efforts, Schuster once again had the greatest impact.
After gathering an offload from Kelma Tuilagi and chipping a kick into the in-goal for his pursuing fullback, he sent Trbojevic over for his second try.
