Bunnies burn Manly after early blistering

v BYE

The South Sydney Rabbitohs have put a terrible opening 15 minutes behind them to score a comfortable 38-18 victory over the Manly Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval.

A tale of thirds told the story of the match with Manly starting like a house fire with Souths seemingly still in the Brookie sheds, and after just five minutes the home side were on the board through Akuila Uate.

 The Sea Eagles then put on another two tries in quick succession firstly through Brian Kelly who went through some very lazy Souths defence before Akuila Uate turned the clock back yet again when he burst through some more lazy defence to give the ball to Tom Trbojevic who scored and without a conversion on the first three tries Manly lead 12-0.

Souths looked to be struggling but a big defensive set lead to their first points of the day when off the back of a penalty, Robert Jennings was too big and too strong and he put Souths on the board and Reynolds conversion pushed the gap to a converted try. Momentum was continuing to go Souths way when Blake Green was sin binned for a professional foul which was followed Cody Walker's try and despite being a try to the worse the scores were level with Reynolds conversion. John Sutton soon strolled over whilst Green was still in the sin bin and the Rabbitohs took a converted try lead into the break.

Souths started the second half the way they finished the first with domination but it was Manly who got on the board first and looked to have swapped the momentum but it was only temporary when Manly equalised through DCE who was on the backend of a burst by Tom Trbojevic and after the only conversion Dylan Walker could make the scores were level.

Souths regained their momentum through a penalty goal when Akuila Uate stupidly picked up a ball in an offside position. From there the first 15 minutes looked a distant memory for the Bunnies with Alex Johnston picking up a double and Robbie Farah got his first four pointer in the Red & Green when Farah was on the end of a Robert Jennings break.

Next week Souths have a tough trip up to the Hunter when they take on a confident Newcastle side at McDonald Jones Stadium, meanwhile the Sea Eagles start to the season doesn't get any easier with a trip to Townsville against the undefeated Cowboys.