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Damning footage shows Bulldogs were robbed by illegal Manly try that shouldn't have stood

Daly Cherry-Evans broke the rules on a crucial Sea Eagles try that helped end the Bulldogs' season.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·4-min read

Bulldogs fans have been crying foul over Manly's trick-shot try from a scrum that helped the Sea Eagles prevail in their pulsating NRL finals thriller on Sunday. And damning footage of the incident appears to show Daly Cherry-Evans broke the rules and the try shouldn't have counted.

Manly stunned the Bulldogs' vaunted defence when Cherry-Evans packed in at lock before delivering the ball straight to Luke Brooks. The Manly five-eighth ran at the line before producing a brilliant ball out the back for Cherry-Evans to stroll through a yawning gap to score.

Daly Cherry-Evans, pictured here breaking from the scrum early.
Daly Cherry-Evans broke from the scrum before the ball was fed in, meaning Manly's try shouldn't have been allowed. Image: Channel 9

The Bulldogs were completely fooled by the move, but was it because the play was illegal? Replays of the scrum move show Cherry-Evans wasn't in contact with the scrum when Reuben Garrick fed the ball in, meaning Cherry-Evans had broken early.

Under the official NRL rules, the referee should have either called for Manly to take the scrum again or penalised them. Under section 12 of the official laws of the game, "all players must remain in the scrum until the ball is out."

The lock is allowed to detach himself to pick the ball up, but only after it's been fed in. Cherry-Evans clearly took his hands away from his teammates' backs before the ball was in play, making his actions illegal.

Daly Cherry-Evans, pictured here taking his hands off the scrum before the ball was in.
Daly Cherry-Evans took his hands off the scrum before the ball was in, while Karl Lawton also wasn't packed properly. Image: Channel 9

Many have also pointed out that second-rower Karl Lawton didn't have his head packed in properly, which appeared to be designed to make sure he could see the ball and make sure it didn't hit his legs and impede Cherry-Evans. The Bunker official would have had to review the play to make sure there was nothing untoward, so we're not sure how they ticked off Cherry-Evans' actions considering they were clearly illegal.

And to make matters worse for Bulldogs fans, Jacob Preston appeared to be obstructed as Cherry-Evans scored. In a play very similar to the one in which the Dolphins had a try disallowed last week, Preston was impeded when he was trying to slide across and plug the gap.

Just like last week with Jack Cogger, Bulldogs halfback Toby Sexton made a defensive decision to try and tackle the decoy runner. But Brodie Jones was ruled to have been obstructed last week, and on Sunday it was Preston who was denied the chance to slide across and tackle Cherry-Evans.

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The Bunker took a crucial try away from the Dolphins last weekend, but on Sunday the Manly four-pointer was allowed to stand. And the controversial call proved pivotal as the Sea Eagles went on to win 24-22.

Bulldogs boss Phil Gould had predicted a refereeing blunder would cost a team in the finals if they didn't sort out the grey areas in the rules. The scrum indiscretion isn't even a grey area, but the Bulldogs had their season ended by a call that appeared blatantly incorrect.