Tough night with terrible conditions. I thought we were alright in the first half. Only had 1 set in the first 9 mins. Manlys first try was disappointing as it was that slide on the line shit again, mainly Paugas fault who will be like 4th choice centre.
Our attack looked ok in Parts. Halves were regularly swapping sides and I liked what Peachey added at 13. Dillon was dangerous on those link plays, probably more so then Laurie, he is extremely quick. Our 5th tackle plays are still complete trash though.
Manly had a full strength pack and we matched them. Tamou even had a crack. Leilua and Tuilagi went well. Twal was great off the bench.
It was 4 all for about 20 mins and I thought we were probably the better side. Then DCE kicked a brilliant 40/20 and Manly went Bang bang to lead 12-4 at halftime. That’s the difference, we don’t have that class.
Gildart & Toa didn’t get much ball so hard to judge. Toa had some strong carries and was willing. Played left wing then right centre.
Second half was horrible footy, it felt like we hardly had the ball and I doubt we had more then 2 sets out of our half. Apart from Rua all the kids were ordinary. Ogden isn’t a fullback, dropped at least 3 bombs. Freebairn, Kei and Tapirari are Ron Massey at best. No idea why they even played. We had the Flegg 5/8 Stevonovic on the bench the whole game yet played Tapaire? Weird
Seyfarth tried hard but isn’t an edge. Tuki on the edge was intersting, pretty sure he offloaded every single hit up. Musgrove played most of the second half and was very poor, especially considering most others on the field we’re nsw cup/Flegg players. Jnr Tupou was soft as shit, he might be talented but looked like he hated the collision, probably a reason he played rugby the last 2 years. Rua was excellent, you can see why the Brandon Smith comparisons have been made, he’ll fill out more too.
Overall I probably saw what I expected. Hopefully next week Laurie, Hastings and Simpkin all play.