NRL: Foran leads Manly to victory

Kieran Foran celebrates scoring for Manly. Photo / Getty Images

A late try from Kieran Foran has broken the hearts of a spirited Parramatta on Monday night, Manly registering a 22-18 win at Brookvale Oval to push them into second spot on the NRL ladder.

In a battle of the fullbacks, the Eels' Jarryd Hayne and the Sea Eagles' Brett Stewart both showed their class during a highly entertaining clash.

NSW winger Hayne produced two sublime no-look passes that led to tries for Luke Burt and Justin Horo in either half, but the resilient Sea Eagles stole the points to seal a sixth successive win.

Manly came racing out of the blocks and opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Michael Robertson, replacing the injured NSW star Will Hopoate, strolled over unchallenged after the Sea Eagles spread the ball wide to the left with ease.

The Eels responded well and hit back when Burt was put clear by a 25-metre pass from Hayne that bamboozled Manly winger David Williams and the veteran wide-man rolled his way to the line.

While Hayne was taking centre stage for the Eels, Stewart was not out of the picture for long, linking up with his brother Glenn Stewart to put Williams in for his fifth try of the season.

The Eels again got themselves back into the game on the half-hour when Justin Horo sidefooted the ball into the path of young centre Jacob Loko who raced through to score.

However on the stroke of halftime, the Sea Eagles hit back again with the outstanding Glenn Stewart breaking clear of two tackles.

From the resulting offload, Williams was held up just short of the line, but from the subsequent play-the-ball, Brett Stewart burrowed over to score from dummy half.

The second half saw a Lyon penalty stretch the home side's lead but the Eels struck back with their best spell of the game.

A try from Ben Smith after George Rose lost the ball from the restart closed the gap to two points, Luke Burt's missed conversion proving costly.

The winger proved uncharacteristically poor with the boot all night, missing three of his four efforts.

A glorious 40-20 from Hayne put the Eels in good field position and after a fine break from Casey McGuire, the 2009 Dally M Medallist found Ryan Morgan with a magical no-look pass, and Horo added the finish.
But with the clock ticking down the Sea Eagles somehow came up with the win when Williams' brilliant grubber-kick bisected the Eels' defence and Foran reacted quickest to dive on the ball and seal a gutsy win.

- AAP