The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles have come back from an 8 point half-time deficit to defeat the New Zealand Warriors by the unique scoreline of 38-32.
The tone was set for a high scoring game when Chanel Harris-Tavita scored for the Warriors just 4 minutes into his return from injury. Kodi Nikorima didn't see anything on the left side of the field and threw a nice pass to set Harris-Tavita up.
The Manly side hit back just 5 minutes later, when Jake Trbojevic got a quick play the ball that saw Lachlan Croker scurry out of dummy half and set Tom Trbojevic up for his first of two tries. Manly hit the front just 3 minutes later again through T. Trbojevic, who took advantage of some poor Warriors defence to crash over.
The Warriors weren't behind for long, with Wayde Egan performing some enterprising play from dummy half to set up Tohu Harris, before Nikorima gave them the lead with a penalty goal in the 35th minute.
The Warriors would go into half-time up by 8 when a Kodi Nikorima kick was knocked on by Jason Saab and Josh Curran was there to clean up the ball and score.
It was all the Warriors for the first part of the second half and they looked all but certain to extend their lead even further, when Kodi Nikorima had the ball with a 3-on-0 overlap. What followed was one of the worst bombed tries in history, with Nikorima poorly executing an unnecessary cutout pass that went over the sideline.
That bit of play would prove to be the turning point in the match, with Manly going 90 metres upfield to score through Morgan Harper.
Manly looked to have compounded the Warriors pain when Haumole Olakau'atu crashed over just a minute later, however the bunker found he had knocked on.
The Warriors couldn't take advantage of the reprieve however, with Josh Curran knocking on on tackle 2 and Manly scoring through Jason Saab in the set that followed.
Manly's defence was the main reason for their next try, with Reuben Garrick scoring after the Warriors were forced to kick from inside their own 20 metre line. They looked to have completely thrown in the towel when Manly scored twice more in the next 5 minutes - both finished by Jason Saab.
However, the Warriors weren't completely done, with Chanel Harris-Tavita scoring his second try after Brad Parker knocked on and Reece Walsh burrowing his way in after a Manly penalty goal to make the score 38-32 with 4 minutes to go.
The Warriors looked certain to tie it up with a minute left when Ken Maumalo got the ball with daylight in front of him, however he wasn't fast enough and ended up being bundled into touch by Saab.
In Magic Round next week, Manly will take on the Broncos on Friday night, while the Warriors will play the Eels on Sunday Afternoon.