Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

Stephen Crichton scored two tries for the Panthers.Credit:Getty

There are few more polarising figures in the NRL than Josh Schuster,a player who yo-yos from the astounding to absurd. It did not take even four minutes for him to show both,poaching an intercept from Nathan Cleary (who does that?) and then running 50 metres,nearly every step of the way looking for a helper. Brad Parker was the only man,yet even he resembled the Ford Laser on his last drips of fuel begging for the petrol station. So having run down field and the defence fast getting to him,what does Schuster do? He kicks the ball. On the first play. No Sea Eagle got near it.

Whether it was a good thing for him or not,his halves partner and captain Daly Cherry-Evans threw an intercept a few minutes later. Only this time it fell in the lap of a speedster,Stephen Crichton,who charged downfield to score. At least Schuster had a similarly red-faced mate.

Cherry-Evans would predictably atone by the end of the half,Schuster would not. The captain held up a beautiful pass for Garrick to score,giving the hosts a lead after Tof Sipley had earlier wrestled his way past four defenders for maybe the softest try Ivan Cleary’s team has conceded in four years.

Crichton’s second try levelled the scores 12-all at the break,but only after howls of protest from Manly fans who were convinced Liam Martin had knocked the ball on into Raymond Tuaimalo Vaega contesting a bomb on the play prior. They may have had a point.

“They’ve asked a lot of questions,played pretty freely and,and we had a lot to consider throughout that first half,” Cleary said. “But we were thinking properly. Respect to them,they played outstanding in the first half.”

If Manly fans had a point,Garrick did not. His bold call to return a kick with one of his own ended up with a shabby chase and Turuva streaking away to score. Yes,Manly’s case was not helped with Ben Trbojevic and Brad Parker leaving the field for concussion tests inside the first two minutes of the second period,which both would fail. Mainly,they didn’t help themselves after that. Kicking duels and all.

PENRITH PANTHERS 24 (Stephen Crichton 2,Sunia Turuva,Brian To’o tries;Nathan Cleary 4 goals)defeatedMANLY SEA EAGLES 12 (Tof Sipley,Reuben Garrick tries;Garrick 2 goals) at 4 Pines Park. Referee:Gerard Sutton. Crowd:10,102.

Stream the NRL Premiership 2023 live and free on9Now.

Sports news,results and expert commentary.Sign up for our Sport newsletter.

License this article