TRBOJEVIC CLAN ENJOYS MEMORABLE MANLY DAY
MOTHER’S Day came early for Melissa Trbojevic as she proudly watched her three sons tear it up as the Sea Eagles returned to winning ways with a 36-22 victory over the Wests Tigers, who will be lamenting a couple of costly calls.
In the first sellout at 4 Pines Park since the infamous Battle of Brookvale back in 2011, the Sea Eagles were forced to survive a short-lived second-half comeback as the Trbojevic trio all had their moments on a super sunny afternoon in Sydney.
This was the first time the brothers had played together at the ground they spent most of their childhood watching their heroes play, but it was their turn to play the role of entertainers in front of a crowd of 17,385.
In a rare start for his beloved Sea Eagles, Ben Trbojevic was the star of the show in the back row and got the party started when he crashed over for the opening try and then added another highlight when he set up a try on the stroke of halftime.
Tom was solid in his first game back from a knee injury, throwing the last pass for Reuben Garrick’s first try and finishing with a gamehigh 198m, but he was beaten on the outside by Luke Garner, who scored a stunning solo try in the second half.
It started a fightback from the Tigers, who went from 18-0 down to within six points in the space of a few minutes, but that was quickly extinguished when Jake Trbojevic forced an error from the kick-off with a trademark tackle around the ball. The Sea Eagles regained control when Josh Aloiai scored a try against his former team and let them know about it before Ben capped an afternoon his family will never forget when he touched down in the right corner to seal the result.
Bad things usually come in threes, but it was a case of double trouble for the Tigers who will be haunted by the No.2 for the next few nights.
It looked ominous from the moment Daly Cherry-Evans caught them napping with a short restart from the opening kick-off, and it went downhill from there.
They lost Ken Maumalo in the opening two minutes to a head knock, and he was later joined in the casualty ward when Thomas Mikaele became the second Tiger to be ruled out.
This saw Stefano Utoikamanu come on to make his long-awaited return from injury, but he, too, lasted two minutes before he was sent to the sin bin as a result of his side’s repeated infringements in the ruck.
The Tigers also had a try to No.2 Asu Kepaoa ruled out for obstruction which was immediately punished by a four-pointer at the other end.
Just when you thought things could not get worse, Kelma Tuilagi forced a shocking offload with two minutes to go which was punished by the ruthless Sea Eagles, who crossed through Christian Tuipulotu.
The second half was not much better with Tyrone Peachey and Tuilagi on the wrong end of two tough calls that saw crucial tries disallowed.