Penrith pounce on Manly in tryscoring feast

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Penrith Panthers v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

Penrith's Brian To'o and Manly's Tommy Talau have had field days on the wing in a high scoring contest that saw the Panthers finish 32-22 winners at Penrith Park this afternoon.

The scoring took 12 minutes to open, with To'o diving over out wide off a superb shift from Jarome Luai and Daine Laurie.

Around the 20-minute mark, Manly - specifically Talau - turned the game on its head. In the space of seven minutes, the Sea Eagles winger had a hat-trick and the game was turned on its head - visitors suddenly ahead 12-4.

With four tries scored and not a conversion in sight, it was over to Penrith to improve the scenario - something they did with two for To'o which produced two from two conversions from Alamoti. To'o's hat-trick completion put the hosts ahead 16-12 after it was looking a bit dire just a few minutes earlier.

Leading by four at the start of the second half, Penrith improved their position to six clear with a 46th minute penalty goal after a hair pull by Manly's Nathan Brown. Sunia Turuva continued the pattern of players with surnames starting with 'T' scoring tries at the 52 minute mark and put a ten-point buffer on things for his side.

The gap became even more comfortable for the home team, Liam Henry scoring on the hour mark and making things a bit dark for Manly. Not even Talau's fourth try a few minutes later - narrowing the gap to 28-16 - could prevent the Penrith onslaught, and when Turuva picked up his second at the 67th minute, it was well and truly game over.

Ten minutes from time, Jason Saab did his level best to keep the game alive after a shift to the right from his Manly backline, but it proved nothing more than consolation as Penrith held firm for the remainder to be ten-point winners and remain at pace with leaders Melbourne and Cronulla.

Penrith head up the M1 next Sunday to visit Newcastle, while earlier the same afternoon Manly will welcome the Dragons to Brookvale Oval.