Manly beat Tigers 38-20 in fiery clash

A 22-point virtuoso performance from skipper Jamie Lyon helped Manly recover from a
horrid start to beat Wests Tigers 38-20 in a fiery NRL encounter at Bluetongue
Stadium on Sunday.
The Sea Eagles scored six tries to four to move up to fourth, one spot behind the
Tigers, in a front of a ground record-equalling capacity crowd of 20,059.
Centre Lyon scored two tries and kicked seven from seven to send the Tigers tumbling
to their first defeat in four games.
The Sea Eagles bounced back from an 8-0 deficit and the first half sin-binning of
centre Steve Matai.
The Tigers dominated early possession and territory statistics, with a try to lock
Chris Heighington and two goals to five-eighth Benji Marshall rewarding them for
their early pressure.
Manly piled on 18 points in 12 first-half minutes to take control through converted
tries to second rower Shane Rodney, five-eighth Kieran Foran and Lyon.
A feisty affair which had produced a few earlier shoving matches threatened to boil
over when Matai was binned five minutes before halftime.
The New Zealand international was put on report for a challenge on Tigers skipper
and hooker Robbie Farah near the Wests line.
Matai gave Farah a slap on the back while he was getting treatment, which
Heighington took exception to and a brief scuffle between the two resulted in Matai
getting binned.
The Tigers got to within six points after halfback Robert Lui juggled and dummied
his way over and Marshall converted.
Manly enjoyed a 24-12 halftime lead after winger Michael Robertson threw a miracle
pass to keep the ball in play and four passes later lock Glenn Stewart crossed.
Centre Blake Ayshford dummied his way over off a Marshall cut-out pass to get the
Tigers within eight.
However Lyon pushed Manly's lead out to 14 after he converted his own spectacular
try which came from a great leap following a cross field bomb by Foran.
Tigers winger Lote Tuqiri, who was hurt trying to defuse a bomb, smashed his way
over for his 12th try of the season to reduce the deficit to ten with 20 minutes
remaining.
The Sea Eagles secured the points when Trent Hodkinson and forward Brent Kite set up
fullback Ben Farrar for a 67th minute try.