Manly Warringah Sea Eagles have suffered a 20-4 defeat to the Sydney Roosters at a drenched 4 Pines Park in Round 22 of the Telstra NRL Premiership.

The Roosters went to the break leading 12-4 despite only having a few attacking sets in Manly’s end, with both first half tries coming from the boot of halfback Sam Walker.

It was Manly with the first try scoring opportunity 30 minutes into the match when Reuben Garrick crossed in the north-west-corner however the final pass was ruled to be forward.








The home side then saw fullback Lehi Hopoate sent for a head injury assessment after he collected the knee of opposite number James Tedesco when contesting a kick.  Hopoate was cleared by the medical staff and later returned with his team leading 4-0.

The Sea Eagles opened the scoring in the sixteenth minute when Tolu Koula powered his way over on the left edge.

The home side then had a couple more opportunities on that same side of the ground  but came up empty handed. 

Garrick looked to be on his way over again before being trapped by the Roosters scrambling defence and dropping the ball short of the line.








Ben Trbojevic was then sent for a HIA after a head clash, failing the test and not returning.

The Roosters scored their first try against the run of play.  Right centre Robert Toia forced a mistake from Tom Trbojevic when defending his own line.

The Roosters then raced the length of the field with Billy Smith collecting a neat in-goal grubber grom Sam Walker.

The visitors were in again the very next set, scoring a freakish try to extend their lead to 12-4.

The play started with Connor Watson offloading on halfway to Tedesco who split through the middle, then a cross-field kick from Walker to Daniel Tupou who passed off the deck for Angus Crichton to score.








The rain got even heavier in the second half has the near 13,000-strong crowd scurried to find dry and unoccupied seats.

The first scoring play of the second half was a penalty kick from in front to put the Roosters up14-4 in the 48th minute.

A short time later they jumped out to a 20-4 lead when Egan Butcher collected a cross field kick from Walker and dived over next to the posts.

Given the conditions and the ball resembling a cake of soap, a 16-point deficit suddenly looked a bridge too far as both sides struggled to maintain possession.

With about 10 minutes left Manly lost another player to a HIA when replacement hooker Jake Simpkin collected a knee to the head when attempting a tackle.

And, as the rain continued to tumble and time remaining diminished, hopes of a miracle comeback grew fainter by the minute.

The Roosters prevailed after an error-strewn second half to collect the Gotcha4Life Cup for a fourth time and keep their finals hopes alive.