Media Reports

[Guest]

WESTS TIGERS BEAT MANLY 14-12 IN THE NRL
By Wayne Cousins
29/07/2011 9:27:06 PM

MATCH REPORT BROUGHT TO YOU BY BPS AUTOBODY (BANKSTOWN AND NARELLAN)

A committed Wests Tigers produced a superb second half performance to record a gutsy 14-12 win over Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at Bluetongue Stadium tonight.

The win moves Wests Tigers to 24 points on the Telstra Premiership ladder and keeps them in seventh place.

It was the first time Wests Tigers have recorded 3 straight wins this season.

Wests Tigers international second-rower Gareth Ellis pulled off a bell ringer on Manly prop Jason King with a superb shoulder charge that forced him to lose the ball from a goal line drop out in the 7th minute.

Wests Tigers were denied a try in the 9th minute after the video referee Sean Hampstead ruled winger Beau Ryan did not ground the ball in following through a grubber kick by hooker and captain Robbie Farah.

Manly opened the scoring in the 12th minute after half-back Daly Cherry-Evans popped a good ball in a two man tackle to full-back Brett Stewart to score next to the posts. The try was converted by Jamie Lyon for a 6-0 lead.

From the re-start, Stewart fumbled the ball twice in-goal to be trapped there by Benji Marshall and Ryan to force a goal line drop out.
Unfortunately a drop ball three plays later ended the attacking play.

Wests Tigers bombed a tryscoring opportunity in the 26th minute when a break down the left flank by Marshall saw him race 40 metres. He had Farah in support but he was tackled as Marshall passed the ball inside. The ball was picked up by Brett Stewart but Wests Tigers received a penalty.

A grubber kick by Marshall in the following set saw Manly force the ball dead to give Wests Tigers a repeat set. The pressure on Manly was released when the referee picked up a forward pass by Farah to Chris Heighington from dummy half.

A minute later, Manly trapped Ryan in-goal from Cherry-Evans grubber kick.

The pressure told on Wests Tigers when Manly hooker Matt Ballin scooted over from dummy half from five metres out to score next to the posts. Lyon converted the try for a 12-0 lead after 34 minutes.

Wests Tigers centre Blake Ayshford kicked the ball dead in the 35th minute after Lyon made a break and then put a grubber kick through for his team-mates only to be beaten to the ball by Ayshford.

The score remained that way until half-time. Had Wests Tigers received a bit of luck in the first half, things may have been a little different.

2nd Half
Wests Tigers first real attacking opportunity in the second half came in the 55th minute when a grubber kick from Farah was forced dead ingoal by Manly.

From the ensuring set, a great long pass by Marshall saw half-back Robert Lui hit a hole to dive over next to the posts. Marshall converted the try for a 12-6 scoreline after 57 minutes.

Two minutes later, Wests Tigers centre Chris Lawrence made a break down the left flank and had Farah in support on the inside but elected to go himself only to be tackled 20 metres out.

Lawrence was then held up over the line on the next tackle, resulting in a no try.

A minute later, Wests Tigers were over through Ayshford after he raced 20 metres to score from a pass by Farah. Marshall failed to convert from next to the posts for a 12-10 scoreline after 62 minutes.

Two minutes later, Marshall made a break down the left field and despite being ankle tapped, managed to offload to Lawrence on his outside to send him to the tryline to give Wests Tigers a 14-12 lead.
Marshall failed to convert the try.

Wests Tigers continued to build pressure in the 72nd minute after Liam Fulton was held up over the line before a smart grubber kick by Farah resulted in a repeat set of six.

Marshall then got Wests Tigers another repeat set and from the scrum win, Lawrence was tackled a metre short of the tryline by Brett Stewart.

A grubber kick in that set of six by Marshall saw the ball forced dead by the Sea Eagles in the 75th minute. Manly then got the ball back after regathering it from the goal line drop out.

The Sea Eagles then kicked the ball down into Wests Tigers quarter on the last tackle in the 76th minute.

Manly then put up a crossfield kick in the 78th minute and regathered the ball but three Wests Tigers players swarmed on him to force a change over.

The Sea Eagles got one last chance in the final minute after Farah knocked the ball on in trying to pass from dummy half to give Manly a scrum feed 45 metres out.

From the scrum, Manly placed a kick downfield but fortunately for Wests Tigers, Ryan scooped on the loose ball.

Keith Galloway then made a big break down the middle of the field with Wests Tigers hanging on for a terrific win in front of a sold out crowd of 20,059.

 

[Guest]

Marshall magic gets Tigers home
July 29, 2011 - 10:01PM

Manly Sea Eagles 12 Wests Tigers 14
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Superstar Benji Marshall engineered a stunning Wests Tigers comeback as they downed Manly 14-12 in a bruising Friday night NRL clash at Bluetongue Stadium.

In a classic game of two halves, the Tigers showed they were ready to mix it with the big boys in coming back from 12-0 down to dominate the second half with three unanswered tries.

Marshall created two of them, the second a stunning 50m effort for Chris Lawrence that included a brilliant no-look pass.

As well as Lawrence, Robert Lui and Blake Ayshford scored tries for the Tigers with Marshall booting one from three in front of a sell-out 20,059 in Gosford.

For the Sea Eagles, Brett Stewart and Matt Ballin scored tries with Jamie Lyon kicking two from two.

The pre-match hype over a simmering feud between the clubs threatened to explode in a third minute dust-up but the match soon settled into the kind of bruise-fest the finals are certain to bring.

The physical Manly machine had looked to be cruising at 12-0 at the break before Marshall sparked a three-try Tigers onslaught in the space of seven minutes.

Lui grabbed a clever Marshall ball in the 56th minute and touched down and the Tigers almost had another three minutes later when Lawrence was ruled not to have grounded the ball by video referee Sean Hampstead.

They only had to wait another two minutes, though, for Ayshford to latch onto a pass from Robbie Farah that Manly players complained was forward.

A shocking conversion miss from Marshall close to the posts left the Sea Eagles in front 12-10.

But the superstar five-eighth made amends with some trademark magic in the 63rd minute, making the bust and delivering the no-look pass for Lawrence to complete a 50m effort and make it 14-12 in favour of the Tigers.

Earlier, Stewart had scored in the 13th minute when he sped onto a superb offload from impressive halfback Daly Cherry-Evans, Lyon's conversion making it 6-0.

Ballin dummied and scooted over from dummy half in the 33rd minute, catching Tigers prop Aaron Woods out at marker as he appealed to the referee for a penalty.

Manly missed an opportunity to join Melbourne at the top of the NRL ladder on 34 points, while the Tigers notched three straight wins for the first time in 2011 to cling to their place in the top eight.

 

[Guest]

Marshall magic gets Tigers home

Updated July 29, 2011 22:28:51
Master class … Benji Marshall orchestrated the Tigers' comeback.

Superstar Benji Marshall engineered a stunning Wests Tigers comeback as they downed Manly 14-12 in a bruising Friday night NRL clash at Bluetongue Stadium.

In a classic game of two halves, the Tigers showed they were ready to mix it with the big boys in coming back from 12-0 down to dominate the second half with three unanswered tries.

Marshall created two of them, the second a stunning 50m effort for Chris Lawrence that included a brilliant no-look pass.

"Things come off sometimes, and tonight half the things came off and half didn't," the crafty five-eighth told Grandstand.

"[We've] still got a lot to work on but there's still next week."

As well as Lawrence, Robert Lui and Blake Ayshford scored tries for the Tigers with Marshall booting one from three in front of a sell-out 20,059 in Gosford.

Marshall said his side gave Manly too many favours in the first half and let the home side take advantage.

"Our execution let us down a little bit but we had them under pressure in our half," he said.

"We just gave them too many piggybacks out of their half.

"It was a big effort from the boys in the second half to turn it around because we definitely needed it."

For the Sea Eagles, Brett Stewart and Matt Ballin scored tries with Jamie Lyon kicking two from two.

The pre-match hype over a simmering feud between the clubs threatened to explode in a third minute dust-up but the match soon settled into the kind of bruise-fest the finals are certain to bring.

The physical Manly machine had looked to be cruising at 12-0 at the break before Marshall sparked a three-try Tigers onslaught in the space of seven minutes.

Lui grabbed a clever Marshall ball in the 56th minute and touched down and the Tigers almost had another three minutes later when Lawrence was ruled not to have grounded the ball by video referee Sean Hampstead.

They only had to wait another two minutes, though, for Ayshford to latch onto a pass from Robbie Farah that Manly players complained was forward.

A shocking conversion miss from Marshall close to the posts left the Sea Eagles in front 12-10.

But the superstar five-eighth made amends with some trademark magic in the 63rd minute, making the bust and delivering the no-look pass for Lawrence to complete a 50m effort and make it 14-12 in favour of the Tigers.

Earlier, Stewart had scored in the 13th minute when he sped onto a superb offload from impressive half-back Daly Cherry-Evans, Lyon's conversion making it 6-0.

Ballin dummied and scooted over from dummy half in the 33rd minute, catching Tigers prop Aaron Woods out at marker as he appealed to the referee for a penalty.

Manly missed an opportunity to join Melbourne at the top of the NRL ladder on 34 points, while Tim Sheens' men notched three straight wins for the first time in 2011 to cling to their place in the top eight.

Marshall said the victory will be a good boost heading into the Tigers' round 22 clash with defending premier St George Illawarra.

"We've been lacking a little bit of confidence lately and hopefully tonight it'll give us a little bit back," he said.

"But that's just one game, people are carrying on like we won the grand final but that's one down, we still have five or six rounds to go.

"We just need to settle down a little bit and make sure we're ready for next week because if we go in too complacent, St George will kick our arse."

 

[Guest]

Wests Tigers flash home against Manly Sea Eagles to steal a 14-12 victory

Paul Crawley
From: The Daily Telegraph
July 30, 2011 12:45AM

WESTS TIGERS 14
MANLY SEA EAGLES 12

UPDATED: They began the second half trailing by two converted tries, but Wests Tigers flashed home to secure a 14-12 win against Manly tonight.

THIS is the time to get excited.

Six weeks out from the finals and the Sea Eagles are leading 12-blot with just over 20 minutes left on the clock in the Friday night blockbuster in Gosford.

The Wests Tigers look dead in the water - then bang, bang, bang. Game over.

Seven minutes of brilliance turns the competition on its head.

This is what you can do when you have a guy called Benji in your team.

One minute, no hope - the next, watch out.

Now for the St George Illawarra Dragons this Friday night. But are the Wests Tigers genuine contenders? This is the question we are all asking today.

This is Tim Sheens' answer.

"We are not there yet," the four-time premiership winning coach said.

"I can understand you guys are going to want to start printing that sort of stuff but within the group, with five games to go and 10 points …

"You've only got to look over your shoulder and you could be struggling so we'll know better where we are going in three weeks time."

But Sheens did concede last night was crucial. And the performance of Marshall - breathtaking.

Though the coach again wasn't getting carried away. We see freakish skills, he sees danger signs.

"I'm not happy with some of those plays," Sheens said of Marshall's game.

"That was an intercept waiting to happen (with the Robert Lui try) but with Benji Marshall he plays what he sees and we like to play down that left side. He pushed a couple of things but at the end of the day he also came up with the plays that won the game."

It was an incredible game to watch.

A sellout crowd of 20,059 got their money's worth in Gosford.

For the first half it was all Manly.

They dominated possession and they looked unbeatable.

Daly Cherry-Evans set up the first try for Brett Stewart by going to the line and when Matt Ballin charged over from dummy-half the Tigers looked gone at half-time.

"Well, we needed half-time," Sheens said.

"We were struggling a bit there the last 10 minutes with not completing and their size was starting to get on top of us.

"But half-time came at a good time for us. We talked about just completing and we went out and got 18 out of 20 sets and half a dozen repeat sets and that made a bit of a difference.

"So we worked them over a little bit in the second half."

And Benji inspired most of it.

The Tigers held the ball, Benji unleashed. That's how it goes with this mob.

He put Lui through with that spectactular pass.

Then came the turning point of the match when Robbie Farah gave a pass to Blake Ayshford that had Manly coach Des Hasler seething.

Manly were convinced it had gone forward; the referee wasn't.

"I think all 20,000 people saw it, I don't think the officials did," Hasler fumed. "But we certainly won't use that as the reason why we lost the game. But it will be the same old result, you know, 'yes we got it wrong, we're sorry about that'.

"Life goes on."

Manly captain Jamie Lyon added: "I nearly had the best view, I think the ref had a better view than me.

"I don't know, I don't know what's wrong with his eyes."

But Marshall capped off a magic fightback when he came up with one of those magical plays only he can do when he threw the no-look pass that put Chris Lawrence away.

Game, set and match.

 

[Guest]

Benji magic as Tigers' finals charge gathers momentum
Glenn Jackson
July 29, 2011

Manly Sea Eagles 12 Wests Tigers 14

THE only problem for players who are able to send no-look passes is they don't get to see them. The fortune was left for everyone else, including Manly, who could only watch as Benji Marshall's magic ended their winning streak at three matches.

Having missed a crucial conversion that would have tied the scores after the Tigers had trailed 12-0 at half-time, Marshall knew he needed to do something to make up for it. So, just a few minutes after his regulation conversion slid past the left-hand post, following Blake Ayshford's 61st minute try, he broke through the Manly defence and sent a no-looker to Chris Lawrence, who did the rest.

And so Marshall had won the game with his sleight of hand, after almost losing it with his slide of foot. But win it he did. The Tigers have now won three straight, and the Sea Eagles represent their biggest scalp of the season. They face another of the big guns, St George Illawarra, next Friday night.

The Tigers' defence, having been broken easily in the first half, held firm in the second. All the suggestions had been that this would be a fiery affair, with old scores to settle, and the match looked like it was heading that way in the early stages. Tigers back-rower Gareth Ellis knocked the stuffing out of Manly prop Jason King, while tempers frayed rather than flared on the sidelines when a heavy collision resulted in Anthony Watmough - who could find a stink in a vacuum - getting involved.

When Beau Ryan's attempt at a try was denied by video referee Sean Hampstead, who ruled that the winger did not have control of a Robbie Farah grubber, it was the Tigers who appeared to have the stuffing knocked out of them.

Four minutes later, Manly halfback Daly Cherry-Evans did remarkably well to find Brett Stewart as Farah and Chris Heighington cuddled him. Stewart found the line, proving he can still score at the Sea Eagles' home away from Brookvale.

The Tigers had been rattled - even after Stewart was tackled in goal after slipping from the restart, halfback Robert Lui knocked on. They should have scored, mind you, when Marshall crept down the left-hand touchline. He could have scored himself had he pinned his ears back but his ball inside went to ground. It turned out the support man Farah did as well, having been tackled without the ball by Jamie Lyon.

The officials told Farah the only reason Lyon was not sin-binned was because Marshall's ball was not going to Farah's hand.

The Tigers were their typical selves, inconsistent and infuriating. They showed their best and worst within minutes. First their fullback Tim Moltzen dragged down Manly forward Shane Rodney just short of the line, but then a few minutes later their defence was torn apart by a smart but still quite simple dart from dummy-half by Sea Eagles hooker Matt Ballin.

It took the Tigers 56 minutes to find their mojo, and not surprisingly, they did it through Marshall, who had tried hard but had previously failed to deliver. With the match slipping away, he sent a wonderful ball to Lui, who found his own grip on the ball and the proceedings to drag the Tigers back into the contest. They should have scored again when Marshall put Chris Lawrence through a hole, and the centre went himself with Farah unmarked.

No matter though, Farah made up for it a few minutes later, splitting the Manly left-side defence and sending Blake Ayshford away for a try. Farah couldn't resist a cheeky taunt Steve Matai's way; the Manly centre had accused him of diving in the corresponding clash last year - which is at the heart of much of the recent fire between the two clubs.

Enter Marshall again. The five-eighth produced a magical piece of play just two minutes later, cutting a hole through Manly, somehow remaining on his feet as he seemingly staggered away, then sent a no-look pass to Lawrence. There would be no stopping Lawrence this time. He had the perfect view for Marshall's magic, even if the man himself couldn't see it.

 

[Guest]

Marshall and Co won't get too excited despite toppling Eagles
Glenn Jackson
July 30, 2011

AFTER Wests Tigers had beaten one of the premiership heavyweights, it was suggested to Benji Marshall that his team was perhaps the one side which would have the pacesetters looking over their shoulders. It might be true, but after leading the Tigers to a 14-12 win over Manly last night in Gosford, Marshall was trying to make one point only - his side would not be looking over theirs.

The Tigers have won three straight matches - last night's the best of them - but Marshall maintained the Tigers would not be resting on their laurels, thinking that they had already done enough to claim a finals spot.

''We didn't win the grand final,'' Marshall said. ''We've got to put it aside - if we get too carried away, and we think we're better than we are, St George will give us a hiding next week. We'll celebrate it for now, but let it go tomorrow.''

Marshall had a major hand in two tries - which came within seven minutes after the side had trailed 12-0 at the break. But he said if the Tigers came up with the same errors against St George Illawarra next Friday, his side would be defeated.

''Even though we won, some of the execution, even from myself - probably 50 per cent came off. There was the 50 per cent that didn't that could have gone the other way,'' Marshall said. ''I've still got a lot of work to do.

''As long as we know that we've still got a lot of improvement and we need to work harder, we can still get better.

''A lot of people have written us off, which is okay. As long as we believe in ourselves that we can get better, and improve every week. To tell you truth, we've been underperforming for a lot of the year. The last couple of weeks have been good to come back. We've just got to carry on. St George are going to be tough, and we've got to go a step better than we did today to beat them as well.''

Tigers coach Tim Sheens was also taking something of a half-empty look to the win.

''It's a very good win,'' Sheens said. ''I thought the side held together really well. Three wins in a row is a little bit of momentum. It'd be nice if it was the last round going into the semis. We've got five games to go, and we're still giving it a shake.

''We're not there yet. I can understand you guys are going to want to print that sort of stuff, but with five games to go and 10 points - you've only got to look sideways … all of a sudden you're struggling.''

And his captain, Robbie Farah, showed that all the key players in the squad were taking a similar view. ''We knew the last two weeks were good, but tonight was always going to a step up for us,'' Farah said. ''It was always going to be a good test, to see how we're travelling.

''The job's not done. We've got the Dragons next week and another four tough games after that. We're not in a position where we can relax. We're not as comfortable as we'd like to be.''

Manly coach Des Hasler suggested the Tigers should have been even less comfortable last night. He maintained Farah's pass to Blake Ayshford for the Tigers' crucial second try was ''two feet forward''.

''I think all 20,000 people saw it,'' he said. ''I don't think the officials did. The results there now. We certainly won't use that as a reason why we lost the game. It certainly doesn't come down to that. But it'll be that same old result - yes we got it wrong, we're sorry about that. Life goes on.''

 

[cunno]

Plenty of interesting reading there but the thing that came straight back was the comment about Sauce's big break late in the second half, that just about summed up the game, I'd forgotten about it but reading the article reminded me of the excitment of seeing Sauce emerge from nowhere and the roar of the crowd.

 

[underdog]

Suck it Des.