Rats 15 Manly 32
The Rats forwards were mongrelled by the Manly pack and especially in the scrums. The poor old Rats don't have a decent scrummaging prop in the whole club and it showed. IIRR 3 of Manly's 4 tries happened after turning down penalties and going for the scrum.
It was like watching the Wallabies against England this time last year – or your kids playing on the motorway – something bad was going to happen at scrum time.
Some other thoughts:
• With all their good forwards and good ball, you would think that Manly would be beating teams by plenty but they don't. In this game they let the Rats come back until they were just 6 behind . They weren't impressive in the 2nd half which was “only” 8-11 to them.
• It was interesting to watch Danny Cipriani playing at my home ground. Much of the ball he received was low grade but most of the time he did well with it and some his phone booth off-loading was magician like. He also did some chips that were actually retrieved by a Rat.
• He would have liked the ball that 10. Ben Seymour received from his Manly pack. 20 y.o. Ben is developing nicely and would be in the frame for one of the Tahs rookie contracts next year. His pass is very good but he has to take the ball to the line more and use his boot a bit to keep outside defenders back. Early days though for this good young player.
• Well done to the Rat's crowd for their many handy hints to one of their favourite refs, Angus Gardner. What a pity his pal, Brett Sheehan, was not on hand to show his appreciation of his skill. Sheeno was probably not allowed to play if he was fit, just as Pat McCabe was not given permission to play. Gerrard was only allowed 30 mins by the ARU and he came on after oranges. There was no sign of Cowan either.
• And hey – you Manly fans, why boo when the ground announcer was trying to gee up the home crowd? [And I'm looking at you lily.]
• The funniest part of the day was when the teams came off at oranges. The Rats went back through their tunnel, as did Manly through theirs, but Cipriani headed off to the Manly exit and had to make a last second detour. Well, I thought it was funny.
• Summary: Manly were far to good in the forwards but should have won by more.