Shute Shield: Warringah Rats and Manly Marlins get 12,000 to derby
A PULSATING crowd of 12,000 witnessing a fierce and riveting contest again demonstrated that the northern beaches is the heartland of rugby in Australia.
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A PULSATING crowd of 12,000 witnessing a fierce and riveting contest again demonstrated that the northern beaches is the heartland of rugby in Australia.
There was plenty of hype in the lead-up to Saturday’s clash between archrivals the Warringah Rats and the Manly Marlins at Pittwater Rugby Park and the game which ended in a 20-all draw did not disappoint.
At 10am there were already 700 people at the ground and by the end of the day the well-behaved spectators had consumed over 13,000 beers, more than 300 pies and 300 Dominos pizzas.
It was a clash where the ascendancy ebbed and flowed throughout the 80 minutes.
Manly raced to a 17-3 halftime lead, the Rats drew level 17-all after 24 minutes of the second half and took the lead 20-17 with just six minutes to go in the epic battle of the beaches.
With 90 seconds left a Manly penalty levelled the scores at 20-all before a field goal shot by Rat Myles Dorrian after the bell went wide.
No doubt Manly will look back on the game and lament a number of tryscoring opportunities that went begging.
“At halftime you felt like you had the ascendancy but I’ve got so much respect for the Rats you always had the feeling that they would come back into the game,” said Marlins coach Brian Melrose.
“They came back strongly, we had a few injuries and 10 to 15 to go all the momentum was with the Rats.
“But the boys fought back well as they always do and ultimately gave us a couple of opportunities and we had them on the rack.
“There were some good signs, it doesn’t get much harder than these days, you have to have some positives to take out.
“Overall it was probably a pretty fair result and a pretty good game.”
Rats bach Darren Coleman was impressed by Manly’s attitude.
“They looked a bit banged up to be honest, 10 minutes into the game they had three games all down injured and they showed a lot of ticker to come back there. Manly have a good spirit there.”
Manly fullback Josh Turner provided plenty of spark, backrower Harry Bergelin never stopped while prop Gunnz Fuavao made a real impact in the scrums.
Coleman said his team just gave Manly too much of a lead.
“But I was proud the boys had a crack in that second half,” Coleman said.
Replacement forwards, hooker Mahe Vailana and secondrower Emmanual Meafou, both made had huge impacts after they took the field early in the second half.