Sea Eagles 12 Eels 19
SYDNEY - He may have been named on the wing for NSW for next week's State of Origin opener, but a fullback masterclass from Jarryd Hayne has helped Parramatta to a 19-12 win over Manly in Monday's NRL encounter at Brookvale.
Hayne, who was once again overlooked for the No 1 shirt by Blues selectors in favour of Kurt Gidley, was outstanding against the Sea Eagles in an absorbing encounter in front of a raucous home crowd.
The reigning Dally M winner set up all three of his side's tries and was consistently involved in a fourth successive victory for a resurgent Eels.
Both coaches had been forced into late changes at five-eighth with Manly's Kieran Foran and Parramatta's Kris Keating ruled out with injuries.
Chris Bailey came in for Manly with Eels mentor Daniel Anderson handing a debut to 21-year-old Tim Humble.
The Eels, fresh from a bye week, came racing out of the blocks and opened up an early 12-0 lead with Hayne playing a starring role in both of his side's tries, scored by Luke Burt and Feleti Mateo.
The opener came after just three minutes when Hayne's pass eluded two Manly players and found Burt who strolled to the line.
Hayne was once again the instigator for the Eels' second try with another superb pass that found an alert Mateo, who brushed aside Trent Hodkinson to score.
Manly got themselves back into the game with a try 10 minutes from the interval from Matai, who had earlier been placed on report for a high shot on Humble, following a mistake from Krisnan Inu.
Inu was far too casual in dealing with a harmless-looking deep kick from Hodkinson, and was greeted with a swarm of Manly bodies who pushed him into touch.
From the subsequent set of six Matai scored from close range.
The second half continued in a similar pattern with the Eels starting the stronger with only a late tackle from Michael Robertson denying Joel Reddy.
This was followed by a piece of brilliance from Jamie Lyon, another NSW starter for next week, who produced a miracle tackle to deny Humble.
However, it was Anderson's side who always looked the more likely to score and with Hayne once again providing a peach of a pass, Luke Burt's grubber-kick was latched onto by former Manly halfback Jeff Robson to score.
And a booming Burt field goal late on sealed the win, to give the Eels their first success at Brookvale since 2004.
There was some drama at the end, with Tahu looking to pull up just on the final whistle with an ankle injury.
- AAP
