Centre Reuben Garrick embarked on a personal scoring spree as Manly put Canberra to the sword with a 40-12 hammering at Brookvale Oval on Sunday night.
Garrick scored four tries and kicked six goals for a haul of 28 points, which takes him to the top of the NRL’s individual pointscoring tally after three games.
He came within two points of Manly’s club record of 30 points in a game, which he jointly holds with Matthew Ridge and Ron Rowles.
Garrick, who became a father when his fiancee, Riley, gave birth to a daughter just 24 hours previously, crossed twice in the first half and added a double in the second after Manly emerged from a 20-minute arm wrestle to dominate proceedings.
The Raiders, impressive winners in their first two games, were left ruing a costly sin-binning – and other self-inflicted wounds – after starting strongly.
Canberra absorbed a mountain of pressure before apparently drawing first blood when centre Sebastian Kris broke clear and dived over in the 21st minute.
Canberra’s Corey Horsburgh cops 10 in the sin-bin.Credit: Getty Images
But the bunker ruled no-try after video replays indicated prop Corey Horsburgh had obstructed defenders in the lead-up.
Unfortunately for Horsburgh, there was worse to come.
Barely a minute later, the red-headed prop was sin-binned for a professional foul, after making a goal-line tackle while not square at marker, at which point the floodgates burst open.
By the time Horsburgh returned to the field, it was 24-0 to the Sea Eagles, and they added another try just before half-time to leave the visitors facing a daunting 30-0 deficit.
Manly defenders drag Canberra winger Xavier Savage towards the sideline.Credit: Getty Images
Manly’s first try, scored by Garrick from dummy-half, came within a minute of Horsburgh being binned.
Then came two tries that were virtually gifted to the Sea Eagles by hapless Canberra fullback Kaeo Weekes.
In the 27th and 29th minutes, Weekes coughed up towering bombs from Daly Cherry-Evans, and both times Manly interchange forward Ethan Bullemore was on hand to pounce on the dregs and score.
In the space of seven minutes, Canberra had gone from level pegging to 18-0 in arrears.
Taniela Paseka was helped from the field.Credit: Getty Images
A dummy-half try from Jake Simpkins, and a second try by Garrick, continued the one-way traffic. Adding to Canberra’s worries, Garrick was in pinpoint form with the boot, nailing all five of his first-half conversion attempts.
He made it a hat-trick of tries 10 minutes into the second half, winning the race to ground a Cherry-Evans grubber kick, although his conversion shot was waved away.
Try No.4 came along for Garrick just three minutes later.
After starting so strongly, it took Canberra 63 minutes to post their first points, through Kris. Hudson Young also scored for the visitors, but it was a case of too little, too late.
The only downside for the 16,125 fans in attendance was an injury to towering prop Taniela Paseka, who was helped from the field by trainers with what looked to be an ankle problem.
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