NRL 2014 Round 25 Highlights: Sea Eagles vs Panthers

• Report rights infringement
• published: 31 Aug 2014
• views: 14495

SUBSCRIBE! http://www.youtube.com/user/footytubenrl?sub_confirmation=1 A hugely impressive and injury-ravaged Panthers outfit has come to Brookvale and almost spoiled milestone games for a pair of Manly veterans, before a throbbing capacity crowd erupted as a last-minute try earned the Sea Eagles an unlikely 26-25 win. On a perfect Sunday afternoon, a hugely parochial crowd of 18,654 was on hand to witness Manly's most underwhelming 40 minutes of football since their Round 5 capitulation at Leichhardt as an avalanche of errors and penalties allowed Penrith's thrown-together and patched up squad to go to the break up 16-6. But, in what was a frantic and end-to-end 80 minutes of rugby league, a Manly side that has repeatedly shown a complete refusal to go away somehow stayed in the contest and scored two tries in the final three minutes to break Penrith hearts. It gave retiring veteran Jason King a magical finish to his last game at Brookvale Oval and long-serving centre Steve Matai a victory in his 200th NRL game. The win kept Manly in with a hope of earning the minor premiership and denied Penrith a guaranteed top-four finish, but it may have come at a cost with Matai on report, hooker Matt Ballin and back-up dummy half Jamie Buhrer both succumbing to injuries – with fears Buhrer may have suffered a season-ending ACL injury. Penrith raced out of the blocks early with the help of some early penalties in a passage of play that set the tone for a frantic and at times panicked-looking first half from both sides that nevertheless proved highly entertaining despite the high error and penalty count. In just the third set of the game – Penrith's second use of the football – Anthony Watmough was penalised for a push in the tackle before Tom Symonds was pinged for being too slow in the play the ball a few plays later. With the visitors enjoying a full set at Manly's line, an offload in front of the posts from Kiwi Test prop Sam McKendry went back to impressive young hooker Kierran Mosely. Mosely's pass found a charging Nigel Plum who burst through to be the afternoon's unlikely first try-scorer with his first try of 2014 in his 20th appearance. Some great defence from young five-eighth Will Smith helped shut down Manly's first attacking raid when he pressured Stewart to throw a pass into touch, before another brace of penalties handed Penrith a golden chance to extend their lead. A nice pass out to the left from Smith and a brilliant tap-on from Matt Moylan to Dean Whare led to Josh Mansour barrelling through Peta Hiku out wide. Again it was a quick brace of penalties that led to points shortly thereafter, with the Sea Eagles making their best attacking opportunity of the game count when Kieran Foran helped Jamie Buhrer through a hole on a run to the line to close the gap to 10-6. Manly continued to hand Penrith opportunities through dropped balls but the visitors were almost as profligate, particularly winger Mansour who twice lost it trying to play the ball too quickly. Despite that the Panthers were next to score and it came on the back of a superb dummy and run out of acting half from the debutant Mosely, who raced downfield to put Manly on the back foot. TWITTER : https://twitter.com/NRLfootyTube FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/FootyTubeNRL FootyTubeNRL TSHIRTS! http://footytubenrl.spreadshirt.com FootyTube NRL channel: http://www.youtube.com/footytubenrl Origin: Channel 9 Archives Department