Trent Hodkinson producing another moment of inspiration to revive Manly Sea Eagles' NRL Premiership campaign with a 19-16 win over the New Zealand Warriors yesterday. With the scores locked at 16-16 and only four minutes to go, Hodkinson's drop goal broke the dead lock and was the catalyst for the victory. "I put my hand up, I was quite happy to give it a shot," Hodkinson said of the kick which clipped Sam Rapira's hand on its journey through the uprights.
"Luckily, it got the deflection and went over." Hodkinson will play for the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2011 after the Sea Eagles failed to come up with a competitive offer and his heroics will have given Manly officials more food for thought over what they are letting go. Jamie Lyon's penalty kick in the last minute gave the Sea Eagles an increased margin of victory and they are now up to fifth in the table.
"We just had to win, that's put it in perspective just where this game was," Des Hasler, the Sea Eagles coach, said. "The boys dug deep when they had to defend their tryline and we came up with the points." In yesterday's other NRL games, three tries in the last 10 minutes from the Bulldogs saw them come from behind to win 22-20 at the North Queensland Cowboys. Michael Ennis, Steve Turner and Josh Morris all touched down to give the Canterbury the victory.
The Melbourne Storm enjoyed an easy day at the office as they swatted aside the Cronulla Sharks 24-4. Today sees the Canberra Raiders entertain St George Illawara Dragons, while the Wests Tigers travel to Parramatta Eels. Meanwhile, in the English Super League, the Wigan Warriors have a second chance to clinch the Leaders' Shield when they go to Hull Kingston Rovers today and Michael Maguire, their coach is confident they will not mess up this time.
A point from their penultimate match of the regular season would finally see off the challenge of Warrington Wolves, who cut their lead to two points with a 36-18 win over Hull on Friday night. Maguire's men slipped up at home to Huddersfield Giants last Sunday but that 18-16 defeat has only hardened their resolve, according to their coach. "We're pretty focused on what we need to do this week," he said. "We had a hiccup last week but we got a lot out of that game. It's made everybody a lot hungrier so hopefully we can put on our best display this week."
Rovers are who are locked in a three-way battle for fifth spot and are unbeaten at Craven Park for more than four months but face a side with the best away record in the league. Justin Morgan, their coach, said: "We've been pretty good at home for most of the year and we want to repay the fans because there's no guarantee we're going to get a home play-off." In the other Super League games the Bradford Bulls entertain the Wakefield Wildcats, the Castleford Tigers play host to Harlequins and the Salford City Reds travel to the Huddersfield.
* Agencies