Rabbitohs on fire over poor Manly outfit

Despite holding a technical home ground advantage, the Manly Sea Eagles have struggled to cope with a rampaging South Sydney Rabbitohs who scored a 40-24 victory in front of 25,733 fans at Allianz Stadium.

The first half would easily go down as the worst 40 minutes from the Sea Eagles all season, despite taking ten minutes to score their opening try, the Rabbitohs seemed to score points at will.

Adam Reynolds opened the scoring for the Rabbitohs which was followed by a try to Luke Keary all set up by some magic from Dylan Walker.

It wasn't all plain sailing for the Bunnies, when Alex Johnston dropped the ball whilst trying to put the ball down one-handed.

Despite that, the Rabbitohs kept the scoring coming with tries to Lote Tuqiri & Alex Johnston, which gave the Rabbitohs a 22-0 lead at half time.

The second half couldn't have started better for the Rabbitohs with Adam Reynolds scoring after just 2 minutes which was followed by Dylan Walker & Alex Johnston to give the Rabbitohs a 40-0 lead.

Over the last 15 minutes the Sea Eagles managed to race through for 4 tries to Brett Stewart, Jamie Lyon, Cheyse Blair and Tom Symonds, and with all of them converted, the score was brought back to 40-24.

Souths now get the advantage off the week off and go straight through to week 3 of the finals meanwhile the Manly Sea Eagles have the nervous wait of judiciary charges for Jamie Lyon, Anthony Watmough and Kieran Foran, before their match next week.

Crowd: 25,733
Halftime Score: Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 0 South Sydney Rabbitohs 22

LeagueUnlimited.com Players of the Match:
3 points - Dylan Walker
2 points - Adam Reynolds
1 point - Lote Tuqiri

MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES (24)
Tries: Brett Stewart, Jamie Lyon, Tom Symonds, Cheyse Blair
Conversions: Jamie Lyon (4/4)

SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS (40)
Tries: Adam Reynolds (2), Luke Keary, Lote Tuqiri, Alex Johnston (2), Dylan Walker
Conversions: Adam Reynolds (6/7)

TEAM CHANGES: Manly have had to make 1 player change, James Hasson is OUT, Cheyse Blair comes onto the bench, one positional change as well, Jason King will start in jersey 17 with Brenton Lawrence dropping to the bench

TEAM CHANGES: South Sydney are 1-17, Goodwin, Lowe and Picker all not required by Michael Maguire

Seems like yesterday that we saw the NRL season kick off but here we are in the first week of the finals and the opening match for 2014 being the Sea Eagles and Souths, both sides come into this one off the back of a loss and will be looking to make amends and jump straight to the preliminary finals

Shayne Hayne calls time on and the Sea Eagles have first possession of the ball

1: PENALTY SOUTHS: Shayne Hayne penalises Manly for too much wrestle and being in the tackle too long

4: Souths go right to the Manly line but the Sea Eagles hold off the Rabbitohs

4: Time out with Jayden Hodges down with a neck injury

5: PENALTY MANLY: Shayne Hayne penalises Souths for being too long in the tackle

10: For the second time tonight, we are off to the Colonel checking onside and contest for a possible Adam Reynolds TRY

10: TRY SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Scored by Adam Reynolds. Kick to come.
Adam Reynolds gets the green lights and opens the scoring for the Rabbitohs

11: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Conversion attempt by Adam Reynolds successful.
Adam Reynolds converts his own try

18: TRY SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Scored by Luke Keary. Kick to come.
Some absolute magic from Dylan Walker initially to send the Rabbitohs on their way and then the ball ends up with Adam Reynolds who puts the grubber through and Luke Keary finishes it off

20: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Conversion attempt by Adam Reynolds successful.
Adam Reynolds has no problems from next to the posts and converts the Keary try

23: UNFORCED ERROR SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Alex Johnston makes an unforced error.
Alex Johnston with no pressure loses the ball trying a one-handed grounding

25: Again Adam Reynolds goes high towards Jorge Taufua but doesn't work this time with Taufua taking the catch

26: TRY SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Scored by Lote Tuqiri. Kick to come.
A pinpoint accurate kick from Adam Reynolds sees Lote Tuqiri fly high and outjump Jorge Taufua to score a try

27: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Conversion attempt by Adam Reynolds successful.
Adam Reynolds from the sideline hits it absolutely perfectly and extends the Rabbitohs lead

29: UNFORCED ERROR SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Kirisome Auva'a makes an unforced error.
Kirisome Auva'a loses the ball whilst on the ground in a strong tackle from the Manly defence

32: Jamie Lyon and Anthony Watmough ON REPORT for a dangerous throw

36: TRY SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Scored by Alex Johnston. Kick to come.
A beautiful set play from the Rabbitohs that was all but done last time, is this time finished by Alex Johnston

37: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Conversion attempt by Adam Reynolds unsuccessful.
Adam Reynolds strikes the conversion well but not quite well enough and it comes off the upright and bounces away

38: UNFORCED ERROR SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Kyle Turner makes an unforced error.
Kyle Turner loses the ball after being hit in the back by his own teammate Sam Burgess

40: And thats all she wrote for the first half - Souths take a dominant 22-0 lead over the Manly Sea Eagles

42: TRY SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Scored by Adam Reynolds. Kick to come.
Despite some doubts on the grounding the Video Referees give it the clean lights and Adam Reynolds gets a double

42: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Conversion attempt by Adam Reynolds successful.
Adam Reynolds slots his own conversion yet again

48: Adam Reynolds sends a ball that goes higher than Sydney Tower, almost comes off for the Bunnies but can't be caught and Sea Eagles work it away from their own 10m

52: TRY SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Scored by Dylan Walker. Kick to come.
Dylan Walker bursts through some weak defence and he scores for the Rabbitohs

55: TRY SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Scored by Alex Johnston. Kick to come.
Alex Johnston gets into some free space yet again and he scores his second of the night

56: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Conversion attempt by Adam Reynolds successful.
Adam Reynolds slots the conversion from close range

56: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
Conversion attempt by Adam Reynolds successful.
Conversion is good

66: TRY MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Scored by Brett Stewart. Kick to come.
Brett Stewart breaks the duck egg for the Sea Eagles despite the appearance of a forward pass

66: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Conversion attempt by Jamie Lyon successful.
Jamie Lyon slots the conversion to close the gap to 34

68: More pressure on the Souths line (first time tonight) after Inglis loses a kick

69: TRY MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Scored by Jamie Lyon. Kick to come.
Jamie Lyon gets the green lights after the contest from the kick was all good

71: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Conversion attempt by Jamie Lyon successful.
Jamie Lyon has no problems converting the try from the sideline

77: TRY MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Scored by Tom Symonds. Kick to come.
A good play from the Sea Eagles and another kick error lets them score again late in this one

77: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Conversion attempt by Jamie Lyon successful.
Jamie Lyon converts the try to put some respectability in the score

78: TRY MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Scored by Cheyse Blair. Kick to come.
Cheyse Blair gets the green light and another late try to Manly

79: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Conversion attempt by Jamie Lyon successful.
Jamie Lyon converts from out wide