Sharks break winning drought
27 March 2004
One statistic stood out for Cronulla coach Stuart Raper after the Sharks held out the Manly Sea Eagles 28-20 in a bruising National Rugby League clash tonight.
It wasn't the fact that his side had marked the 35th anniversary of home games at Toyota Park in style.
Nor that his outfit had extended an 18-year hoodoo over the Sea Eagles at the Cronulla ground.
The only stat that concerned Raper was the long-awaited entry in the Sharks' win column for the 2004 NRL season.
A clearly relieved Raper finally broke his winning drought since filling the big shoes of ex-Test mentor Chris Anderson in the off-season with the five tries to three third round victory.
Raper admitted a third straight loss would have placed unbearable pressure not only on himself but his side after a frustrating loss to Wests Tigers and last weekend's heartbreaker against the Bulldogs.
"It certainly looks better than zero (wins) doesn't it?" Raper said.
"You work hard in the offseason and you just like to get on a good start. Last week we played well with no reward and tonight we played a lot better in patches but still obviously enabled Manly to get back into the game.
"But getting the two points was a big objective, especially in front of the home crowd."
The Sharks faithful of more than 15,500 indeed appreciated the victory which extended the Toyota Park curse for Manly.
The last time Manly downed the Sharks at their Cronulla home ground was in 1986 when current Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler and recruitment manager Noel Cleal were playing for the northern suburbs club.
Raper still had his regrets, especially after the Sharks led 28-8 four minutes into the second half but let Manly cut the deficit to 28-20 by the 67th.
"We probably took our foot off the pedal. We played some great footy especially after the halftime break, we probably didn't prepare for an arm wrestle - we just tried to blow them off the park," he said.
Raper said he would speak with NRL referees coach Robert Finch during the week to discuss "a few things" after the Sharks went into halftime on the wrong side of an 11-3 penalty count.
The Sharks mentor still had worries - backrower Andrew Lomu suffered a fractured cheek bone from an accidental kick by Manly's Shayne Dunley while pivot Greg Bird injured his throat but "should be fine".
Hasler appeared just as frustrated as Raper by the result.
"The unforced errors were unacceptable, it didn't allow us to get any sort of roll on but in sections that we did control ball ... we put points on them," he said.
"I think their 18 points in the first half came from unforced errors ... we are shooting ourselves in the foot, how many cliches can I use?"
After the Sharks led 18-8 at halftime they looked set to run away with the match when Brett Kimmorley and David Peachey both crossed for their second tries in the opening four minutes of the second half.
Peachey's try was a highlight with the ball going through at least seven sets of hands before the lanky fullback strolled over near the posts.
But Manly threatened to crash the party when former Wallaby, fullback Andrew Walker converted his own try in the 67th minute to cut the deficit to just eight.
