Manly will head into the 2013 NRL campaign on the back of two defeats after going down 20-4 to the Sydney Roosters in Saturday’s trial match at Gosford.
The Sea Eagles lost to Cronulla the previous weekend and in their final hit out before facing Brisbane in their season opener on March 8, they lost star backrower Anthony Watmough to a rib injury within the first 10 minutes.
Watmough, who underwent neck surgery at the conclusion of last season, looked in real pain as he sat out the remainder of the match as a precaution.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson left out Kiwi superstar Sonny Bill Williams and the newly re-signed Mitchell Pearce but gave debuts to NSW centre Michael Jennings and James Maloney.
Luke O’Donnell is yet to return to Australia after completing his move from Huddersfield on Thursday.
Maloney started the game at halfback with Daniel Mortimer named at five-eighth.
Manly coach Geoff Toovey left out Brett Stewart, Matt Ballin and co-captain Jason King, but named a strong side skippered by Jamie Lyon and including recruits Justin Horo and giant prop Brenton Lawrence.
The Roosters came racing out of the blocks with giant winger Daniel Tupou opening the scoring after four minutes as Manly’s right-side defence was cut to shreds.
Jennings doubled his side’s advantage on the 14-minute mark, diving out of dummy-half to take advantage of some ponderous Sea Eagles defending.
Both sides showed signs of ring rust as passes went astray and balls were dropped with Robinson’s side leading 10-0 at the break.
Manly saw more of the ball in the second half with Lyon becoming more involved, only to be frustrated by some good line defence from the Roosters.
Dane Chisholm was held up over the line and young winger Jacob Gagan was pushed into touch by former teammate Michael Oldfield when he looked set to score.
The Roosters extended their advantage when Issac Liu got the final touch to Mortimer’s crossfield kick and iced the result 10 minutes from time when Samisoni Langi darted over from close range.
Gagan added a consolation for Manly late in the game, but Chisholm missed the resulting kick.
