The Sea Eagles inexplicably blew a 20 – 4 half time lead in their opening round of the season against Melbourne Storm last week.

For the first 40 minutes, Manly justified their favourite’s tag and were at their best, controlling the play and scoring four tries, including two to centre Steve Matai, to Melbourne’s one.

In the second half though, they were not the same side and the absence of Brett Stewart, who left the field just prior to the break with a hamstring injury, was clearly noticeable as Manly’s attack packed nowhere near the same punch.

All the Sea Eagles could muster against the Storm’s comeback was a penalty goal late in the game that locked the scores up at 22 all with five minutes to play.

In the end, it was Cameron Smith’s field goal in extra time that gave the visitors a miraculous win and the two competition points and left Manly Coach Geoff Toovey declaring “We’ve got a lot of improving to do.”
That’ll improvement will need to come quickly as this week they face Souths Sydney who in the opening round, could not have been more impressive against the reigning premiers Sydney Roosters, recording a dominant 28 – 8 win.

Form the opening whistle the Rabbitohs were in charge and only some poor errors whilst in possession of the ball and a try against the run of play to the Roosters, kept their opposition within reach at half-time, 6 – all.

After the break, the Rabbitohs continued to control the game but this time, without the errors, and posted three more tries, two of which were scored by Greg Inglis, taking his total for the match to three.

These two sides met three times last season, twice in the regular season and once in the preliminary final.

Souths won the home and away games by margins of eight and twelve points and got off to a flyer against the Sea Eagles in the final, only to be overhauled and defeated 30 – 20.

Sea Eagles lost all momentum when Stewart was off the field last week and he will be sorely as the home-side will need to be firing on cylinders to meet a strong Rabbitohs outfit that were strong in every department of the game last week.

The return of winger David Williams and forward Jason King will help the Sea Eagles but not enough to prevent Souths from recording their second win of the season.

TIP: RABBITOHS

Odds Comparison:

Manly Sea Eagles	2.70	2.70	2.75	2.70	2.70	2.65
South Sydney Rabbitohs	1.48	1.48	1.47	1.48	1.48	1.48

All odds are subject to change. Odds listed are correct at the time of the latest update.

Tips: South Sydney Rabbitohs to win.

Teams:

Manly Sea Eagles:

1. Peta Hiku 2. Cheyse Blair 3. Jamie Lyon 4. Steve Matai 5. David Williams 6. Kieran Foran 7. Daly Cherry-Evans 8. Josh Starling 9. Matt Ballin 10. Brenton Lawrence 11. Anthony Watmough 12. Justin Horo 13. Glenn Stewart 14. James Hasson 15. Dunamis Lui 16. Jamie Buhrer 17. Jason King 18. Jesse Sene-Lefao

South Sydney Rabbitohs:

1. Greg Inglis 2. Nathan Merritt 3. Beau Champion 4. Bryson Goodwin 5. Lote Tuqiri 6. Dylan Walker 7. Adam Reynolds 8. George Burgess 9. Issac Luke 10. Sam Burgess 11. Chris McQueen 12. Ben Te’o 13. John Sutton 14. Ben Lowe 15. Joe Picker 16. David Tyrrell 17. Luke Burgess 18. Joel Reddy 19. Kyle Turner