Sea Eagles stage an upset to soar into the semi finals

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Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

The Manly Sea Eagles have spoiled the party for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs with a famous 24-22 victory to progress through to the Semi Finals.

Staging a second half comeback in front of the largest crowd for a Week One finals match in the NRL era, a scintillating try from Tolu Koula saw the Sea Eagles upstage the Bulldogs' first finals appearance since 2016.

Getting off to a dream start with points stemming from a Tom Trbojevic error close to the Sea Eagles goal line, a left-side shift allowed Bulldogs winger Jacob Kiraz (6th minute) to plant the ball down to the delight of 50,714 supporters in attendance.

Penalties in quick succession saw the Sea Eagles momentarily take the lead with Tommy Talau (14th minute) diving for the corner and Reuben Garrick nailing a conversion from the touchline. 

The Bulldogs big name stars delivered midway through the half with Viliame Kikau (19th minute) bullocking through feeble defence and Matt Burton exposing Tom Trbojevic defending in the frontline with a chip kick for Stephen Crichton (23rd minute) to pounce. 

A costly error by Jeral Skelton, who dropped the ball over the try line, was compounded on the cusp of halftime with Lehi Hopoate soaring onto a Daly Cherry-Evans bomb and offloading to Ethan Bullemor (36th minute) in support to narrow the margin to 16-12.

A fortuitous bounce of the ball allowed Skelton (46th minute) to make amends for his first half mishap after a cross-field kick from Toby Sexton was knocked on by  Koula and batted on by Crichton into the waiting arms of the replacement winger.

The Sea Eagles clawed back the deficit with Luke Brooks and Cherry-Evans (55th minute) pulling off a perfectly executed scrum play to narrow the margin to four points.

Posting back-to-back tries for the first time with an audacious decision to run the ball on the last tackle, a series of offloads from inside their own half allowed Tolu Koula (70th minute) to streak away for one of the tries of the season; Garrick's conversion put the Sea Eagles ahead 24-22.

Burton was unable to land two two-point field goals in the dying moments, leaving the Sea Eagles to record a famous victory against the odds.

Next week, the Sea Eagles will face the Roosters on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium.