Green Machine rolls over the top of error-ridden Eagles

A superb injection from the bench from Joe Tapine and Tom Starling has helped Canberra overcome a shaky start and then a second-half Manly fightback to claim a 30-16 win at 4 Pines Park on Thursday night.

With both sides missing two players on Origin duty, Canberra’ stand-in halves combination of Sam Williams and Matt Frawley – who have spent seasons together as a reserve-grade pairing at the club – turned the screws with their dual kicking games grinding Manly out of the match.

Williams was rewarded with two tries and the pair combined for seven goal-line drop-outs forced after Tapine and Starling dragged the side back into the match after Manly had threatened to blow Canberra away early.

Fullback Xavier Savage was also impressive on his official debut, supplying a safe pair of hands at the back and some excellent kick returns with just over 100 meters, three kicks defused and a try save and just one ill-timed handling error to blot his copybook in a performance that likely earns him another game at the back next week.

The first half turned on its head once Canberra’s first two interchanges were made.

Tapine replaced Dunamis Lui after just 12 minutes with the former Maroons prop succumbing to a calf strain that ruled him out of the game.

Tapine tore through 173 run metres in just under half an hour in that period to drag his side back into the contest, making almost as many metres as Manly’s entire starting forward pack did (178) in the opening half.

Starling was brought on far earlier than he had been in recent weeks, pushing Josh Hodgson to a ball-playing lock role and adding plenty of spark from dummy half.

His livewire scoot in the 29th minute, weaving back and forth between tired forwards for an untouched try, got his side on the board and into the lead after a Dylan Walker show-and-go had embarrassed Canberra’s right side defence just eight minutes in.

Brad Parker’s dropped ball over the tryline under attention from Savage proved a huge turning point with Canberra allowing Manly just one set out of 11 possessions at one point as both Sam Williams and Matt Frawley repeated snaked grubbers into Manly’s in-goal for five first-half drop-outs forced.

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Williams does it all himself for Canberra

The wave of possession eventually told when Williams dummied his way between some tired forwards in the 36th minute to send his side to the break with a 12-4 advantage.

There was a passage of déjà vu for the Sea Eagles as Canberra forced their sixth and seventh goal-line drop-outs of the match in the 10 minutes after half time before Williams dummied his way between some tired forwards to score his second of the game.

Canberra’s fourth try seemed to sum up Manly’s night – a Sam Williams bomb went up and Moses Suli turned his back on it perhaps thinking it was travelling past him but it instead bounced off his head into the Manly in-goal for Seb Kris to pounce and all-but seal the game at 24-4 with 20 minutes to play.

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Suli charges over back on the angle

Some rare attacking ball for Manly culminated in Haumole Olaka’uatu smashing his way through five defenders to score in the 65th minute before a great angled run from Suli closed the sore to 24-14 with almost 10 minutes remaining.

After their second-half woes this year you could forgive Raiders fans for wondering if history was about to repeat with Manly only needing two tries to add another disastrous collapse to Canberra’s season but instead it was Emre Guler who crashed through the Manly line from a standing start in the 76th minute to seal the win.