First half blitz sees Manly home against Dragons

A great first half performance from the Manly Sea Eagles has seen them claim a 28-24 victory over the St George Illawarra Dragons. Manly led 28-6 at halftime, care of three tries in a six minute period.

The Dragons had early attacking possession, but for the first 10 minutes of the game Manly were constantly on attack, and Steve Matai opened the scoring crossing out wide.

Following a superb 40/20 kick, Michael Monaghan dived over from dummy half to double the Eagles lead.

Five minutes later the Dragons looked like making a game of it, and on their first real attacking opportunity Mark Gasnier scored off a Beau Scott break.

All thoughts of an early comeback were quashed as an inspired Manly side piled on 16 points. A Jamie Lyon short pass but Steve Bell over, and from the ensuing kickoff, Michael Bani broke through and put Brett Stewart over to extend the lead to 22-6. Monghan claimed his second try with another dummy half effort.

After halftime it appeared that both teams had put the cue in the rack, however the Dragons didn