NRL Round Up – Round 2
Manly scored a useful 22-18 win over pre-tournament favourites Wests Tigers in a thrilling match at Gosford.
Adam Blair opened his Tigers account with a well worked try to ensure the visitors held an 8-2 lead at the break.
However, three unanswered scores from Jason King, Daly Cherry-Evans and Tony Williams after the break gave the Sea Eagles a commanding lead.
The Tigers roared back with Beau Ryan and Joel Reddy crossing for scores but Manly held on for a well-deserved victory.
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Matt Bowen was the hero for North Queensland as they defeated Brisbane 28-26.
The Cowboys led 16-8 at the break courtesy of scores from Dallas Johnson, Brent Tate and James Segeyaro.
Josh McGuire and Gerard Beale hauled the Broncos back into the contest with a try each in the second half but a brace of scores from Bowen secured the Cowboys’ win.
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Canberra secured two competition points with a smash-and-grab victory at Gold Coast 24-12.
Josh Dugan’s early try was bettered by Jarrod Croker who touched down after a great piece of work from rookie winger Jack Wighton, but scores from Jordan Rankin and Dominique Peyroux meant the teams were deadlocked 12-12 at the break.
However, the Raiders shifted into overdrive after the break with winger Joel Thompson crossing from a Josh McCrone pass before winger Croker scooted over for his second score of the day to hand victory to the Raiders.
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Canterbury followed up last week’s win at Penrith with a resounding 30-4 victory over St George.
Josh Morris was on fire for the Bulldogs, crossing for a first half hat-trick of tries to help the home side into an 18-4 interval lead.
Bryson Goodwin notched a wonderful solo score before prop Greg Eastwood barrelled his way over for the Bulldogs’ fifth and final try.
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Cronulla crashed to their second defeat in as many matches, going down 18-6 at home to resurgent Newcastle.
Akuila Uate’s try was all that separated the teams at half time after a 40 minutes dominated by mistakes and dropped passes.
Chris Houston doubled the Knights’ lead with an early second half try before Junior Sau crossed to extend their lead yet further, meaning Ben Pomeroy’s late effort was in vain for the Sharks.
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Penrith held the Sydney Roosters scoreless as they dominated their opponents to win 18-0.
Sam McKendry opened the scoring for the Panthers by steamrollering Roosters full-back Anthony Minichiello before Michael Jennings doubled their lead to 12-0 at half time.
The Roosters were undone by a second half performance littered with errors, leaving Jennings to grab his second and hand victory to the Panthers.
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Melbourne produced a powerful second half performance to defeat South Sydney 24-10.
The Rabbitohs clawed their way back to 10-10 with Chris McQueen and Sam Bugess registering scores.
The Bunnies battled hard but a strong final 30 minutes from the Storm saw Billy Slater grab a brace of tries and Nielsen add another, leaving the home side to take the spoils.
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Parramatta surrendered a two try lead to crash to a 36-20 loss to the New Zealand Warriors.
Despite scoring three tries apiece in an entertaining first half, it was the Warriors who led at the break thanks to a James Maloney penalty.
Maloney and Chris Sandow traded scores after the break, meaning the Eels were in touch with less than ten minutes to go but the Warriors sewed up victory with late tries from Kevin Locke and Bill Tupou.