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6 hours ago | Rhys Sullivan
An 18-nil halftime lead was enough for the Sea Eagles to hold off a error filled South Sydney side 20-12 in front of 8,273 fans at Sydney Football Stadium.
It was the perfect first half of football that spurred on by the continued excellence from Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans helped the Sea Eagles to a three try lead at the break.
First it was the combination between the two halves - Cherry-Evans and Jamie Lyon for the latter to slide over in the third minute. Jorge Taufua finished off a sweeping backline movement to make it a 12-nil lead.
For South Sydney, heir first half was punctuated with errors as they couldn't sustain much pressure on the Sea Eagles line. Former Wigan flyer Joe Burgess had a particularly unhappy night with a handful of errors and a disallowed try.
Cherry-Evans was central to the smooth attack from the visitors. The former Queensland half, shunted an inside ball to Jamie Buhrer who drew the fullback and sent Tom Trbojevic across for an 18-nil lead.
If the first half was all Manly Sea Eagles, the second belonged to the Souths team. They came out fired up to get themselves back into the game and started to dominate the ruck, earning successive penalties and camped in the Sea Eagles half.
Returning from injury - Adam Reynolds did it himself as he dummied and sliced through to give Souths their first points. His halves partner Cody Walker started a movement in the 50th minute before he finished well besides the posts. Within ten minutes it was 18-12 and Manly were having flashbacks to last weekend in Perth.
Souths thought they had equalised when Joe Burgess rampaged down the left side and turned Trbojevic inside out before he planted the ball down. On further evidence, there was separation and the Sea Eagles survived.
The call took the wind out of the Rabbitohs sails, as the Sea Eagles added a penalty goal to put the margin out to eight. The visitors held firm for the two points as Souths tried to promote the ball more often but were unable to finish their sets correctly.
South Sydney are back at ANZ Stadium next week after spending this week at their former home of Allianz - they'll host Canberra on Sunday afternoon. Manly meanwhile host Newcastle at Brookvale the same day.
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