Dave Beat I thought it was a cracking game. The opening 20 from Manly was almost flawless football - high-paced, aggressive at the breakdown in attack and defence, few mistakes. Uni were not allowed into it. The 2Manly tries well constructed and taken.
Once Uni got a bit of ball and go forward, it was slow, grinding progress in contrast. Manly's problem was the tackle-release was too slow, the ref saw it, pinged them a few times, and they suffered for one too many of the same offence with the YC. Tough, in a way, as they had played it well otherwise.
The Uni try just on half-time was the back-breaker, as it really tied it all up.
Manly came out really vigorously again, but their big error was allowing too much counter by Foley and Kingston especially in space, who are too classy at this level to be given that latitude. Uni probably a bit lucky not getting a player carded in second half, but like the ABs, the offences they committed were mixed up a bit, I think.
I thought Uni were having a Phil Waugh moment with all the scrum resets (and not in a good way) but they did have the edge there, especially with bench players.
I won't pretend I'm not happy Uni won, but I had to feel for Manly as they did just about everything right.
High quality rugby from both teams, and apart from Foley and Kingston, most of the better players on the park were 'no-names', relatively speaking.