League: Warriors fail to keep up momentum against Manly

Warrior Awen Guttenbeil offloads the ball as he is lifted in the tackle of Manly Warringah player Brent Kite. Picture / Kenny Roger

The Warriors will be as concerned at the low crowd figure of 7888 at Ericsson Stadium yesterday as they are at the scoreline after falling to niggling tactics by the Manly Sea Eagles for the second year in a row.

In a stop-start game where the Sea Eagles expertly robbed the home side of momentum when their tryline was threatened, referee Russell Smith puzzled everyone with a 13-12 penalty count and rulings that frustrated both teams.

Smith, as the only neutral ref in the NRL, was front-runner to take the May 5 test but yesterday's performance is likely to be seized on by the Australians as reason to push one of their own.

Smith warned Manly captain Ben Kennedy as early as the 10th minute about keeping his players quiet but it didn't work.

Just after that Manly centre Steven Bell broke through rookie Patrick Ah Van who found out late Saturday that he would be starting on the wing to replace Manu Vatuvei.

Vatuvei and Jerome Ropati both suffered hamstring injuries in the last training on Saturday, putting Sione Faumuina back in the five-eighths slot.

Ah Van made a good debut, twice defusing dangerous bombs.

But the slick backline play that had marked their game against Newcastle the week before was missing, chances went begging when kicks were over-cooked, passes were thrown forward and breaks were not supported.

Simple draw-and-pass scoring opportunities were lost when the ball was sent the wrong way. It was panic-attack stuff from the Warriors.

They were 20-0 down by the break, Manly playing a simple grinding game with little flash. Their halfback Matt Orford peeled off ground with his kicking game.

The Warriors' running featured too much standing and jinking and not enough go-forward other than from captain Steve Price and Ruben Wiki as usual, plus Louis Anderson. Their decision-making was too slow.

They started the second half much better, mounting continuous pressure from the start and eventually putting Tony Martin in at the right corner.

They continued to press and Manly continued to slow the game, holding down in the tackle, until utility Shayne Dunley was sin-binned in the 56th minute.

Just two minutes later Brent Webb dived in next to the posts. Three Manly players ran at ref Smith to tell him to look for obstruction and, after reference to video ref Graeme West, the try was disallowed and the Warriors penalised for causing obstruction.

"I couldn't believe it," Price said. "I didn't know what it was for, I couldn't see why it wasn't a try." Smith apparently called Price for blocking a tackler but the Manly player concerned was already falling to the ground.

The Warriors needed quick re-starts when they had turnovers and penalties and it was well into the game before Smith worked out the Manly tactics and reacted to them.

"I thought we were mounting plenty of pressure, we got repeat sets and they took their time. There was plenty of frustration, Russ [ref Smith] was doing the best he could the way the game was going."

Coach Ivan Cleary made comment about confusing obstruction calls, some that were "petty". Benefit of doubt was not given to the attacking side.

"I thought the ref had too much input into the game." All the players were frustrated, the game suffered as a spectacle but it was not why they had lost, Cleary said.

The late team changes had caused disruption.

Cleary was not sure if Vatuvei or Ropati would be fit for the trip to Canberra next weekend but Ah Van and Richard Villasanti, who came back from the Canterbury Bulls, had filled in well.

Manly coach Des Hasler said he would be addressing the officials' interpretations with refs' boss Robert Finch today. He made no apologies for their style. "No matter how you get it or how you graft it you just want to get the two points."

Eagles captain Ben Kennedy said his team had played inspirational football in the 10 minutes Dunley was binned and that was the winning of the game.

Second rower Steve Menzies is on report for a high shot on Ah Van but action appears unlikely. The game ended with Orford slotting a penalty after Webb put a high shot on Kennedy.