Mr Burns shows his muscle as Cronulla buck trends

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Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles v Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks

Billy Burns has inspired the Cronulla Sharks to buck the trend of blowing double-digit leads as the visitors scored the last three tries of the game to beat Manly 30-14 at Brookvale Oval.

After a tense opening to the game which saw both sides squander attacking field position. An inside pass sent Briton Nikora through a gap to give the Sharks momentum and more importantly took Tom Trbojevic out of the defensive live. before a Nicho Hynes chip over the top sat up perfectly for Ronaldo Mulitalo to score his third try of the season.

Cronulla dominated this game thus far and got the reward six minutes later. After setting up the first with his boot, Hynes got another try-assist off a terrific short pass finding a charging Addin Fonua-Blake to charge across against his old club to make it a 12-0 lead.

Manly's attack was stuck in neutral throughout the first half as the Cronulla defence continued to repel every attacking raid. Meanwhile, the Sharks would become frustrated with the score not going past 12. They would eventually add a penalty goal after Sam Stonestreet was hit high to make it 14-0 at the break.

The Sharks had early chances to add to their lead, but Manly had an answer for everything the Sharks threw at them. A Trindall error in attack gave the home side a chance. Haumole Olakau'atu took advantage with a counter attack, he dabbled it along the ground for Jason Saab who airswung at it. Fortunately, Reuben Garrick picked it up, found his winger Saab who got to the ten metre line before finding Tolu Koula to get Manly on the board.

As was the theme of the weekend, no lead was ever safe in the NRL. A spread to the left saw Koula get the ball from a standing start. The Tongan international beat four defenders on his way to the line and it appeared the Bermuda Triangle of NRL scores would come back to bite. Garrick added a penalty goal on the hour mark after the Sharks were caught offside and we had an enthralling final quarter-hour to play.

With 14 to play, a good kick from Hynes was defused in the in-goal by Garrick. The Manly centre tried to escape from his own in-goal but was crunched by Billy Burns who lost the ball and Trindall picked it up to score. That gave Cronulla their lead back inside the final minutes. It was another terrific play from Burns who put boot to ball for Mulitalo to score that put the game beyond doubt for the black, white and blue.

They added further icing on the cake in this game with a spectacular last tackle try. Hynes and Burns played hot potato and Iro showed too much pace around the outside of DCE and Garrick to score.