The blood between the Wellington Cougars and Manly Cannons has never been particularly good, not since Wellington's humiliating 42-6 annihilation of Manly in the 2002/2003 major semi final. Wellington went on to win that competition, and Manly became the side to hold the biggest finals' loss in recent memory.

Wellington Cougars Manly Cannons
1 Anthony Minichiello 1 Koru Tirohara
2 Lesley Vainikolo 2 Mat Rogers
3 John Sitizein 3 Chev Walker
4 Clinton Toopi 4 David Kidwell
5 Timana Tahu 5 Matt Sing
6 Trent Barrett 6 Stanley Tepend
7 Sean Long © 7 Stacey Jones
8 Tomas Larsson 8 Courtney Brideson
9 Luke Priddis 9 Johnny Lawless
10 Paul Rauhihi 10 Mark O'Meley
11 Jamie Peacock 11 Logan Swann
12 Richie McCaw 12 David Lyons
13 Kevin Sinfield 13 Steve Menzies ©
++Interchange
14 Jake Luana 14 Edward Hoartshire
15 Leonardo Orelli 15 Grahem Anlezark
16 David Giffin 16 Ashton Simms
17 Manuel Contemponi 17 Slick Cupples

Today's clash would hopefully be different for the fifth placed Cannons, but it started off in all the wrong ways when the side made several early errors. Manly's first two sets ended with handling errors from David Kidwell and Mat Rogers. The Cougars made them pay early, Trent Barrett slicing through from ten out to score a fairly soft try. Sinfield made no mistake with his close range conversion, and the Cougars held a 6-0 lead.

Manly's sets began to stabilise, but were hardly threatening to the Cougars' line. The most promising came in the 11th minute, when the Cannons finally managed to put in an offensive kick. The spiralling bomb was ably defended by Anthony Minichiello. The Cougars made seventy five metres from the return set, including a powerful Timana Tahu run. The set was finished off with Jamie Peacock monstering his way over the line to make it 10-0. Sinfield's conversion was waved away, but things didn't look at all good for the Cannons.

The two early tries slapped Manly into action, and the Cannons slowly but steadily started to fight their way back into the game. A disallowed try in the 17th minute threatened to crush the Cannons' fighting spirit- but Japanese buzz-saw Koru Tirohara ensured there would be no collapse when he plucked an errant Sean Long pass from the air and raced away to score a try against the run of play. Mat Rogers knocked it over from out wide, and the Cannons were back in the game at 10-6 down.

Manly continued to be their own worst enemies however, continually putting in poor last tackle options or turning over possession in their own end. The Cougars lacked some of last year's killer instinct however- and could only land a 37th minute penalty goal to complete scoring for the first half. Manly would go into the sheds demoralised, but not out of the game at 12-6 down.

HALFTIME: Wellington 12 lead Manly 6

The second half showed some extra intensity in both sides, with the early sets showing some flare and some defensive strength. Manly's strength was again sapped early on when David Kidwell dropped an easy ball, and English international Edward Hoartshire was forced to leave the field with a fractured eye socket. A minute later Luke Priddis burrowed over from close range to put the Cougars ahead again, and Sinfield's conversion had it at 18-6.

Manly's nightmare got worse as the rain began to pour and the handling followed suit. While the Cougars seemed more accustomed to the wet weather football, the Cannons continued to make uncustomary errors. Usually safe winger Mat Rogers was at the fore, putting down the ball cold on two consecutive occasions. The torrid conditions weren't good for the players either- Logan Swann (Manly) and Manuel Contemponi (Wellington) both left the field with badly twisted ankles after the soggy turf brought them down.

It was fitting that another Manly error put the Cougars in again, Stanley Tepend dropping it only fifteen metres out and then failing to mark up. The Cougars exploited it perfectly, Richie McCaw running right down the middle in the space Tepend left. The resulting try and conversion had it as good as over at 24-6 in favour of the home side.

It was becoming almost painful to watch. In the 60th minute Manly got possession forty out from Wellington's line, only to make ten metres and turn it over on the last when Stacey Jones slipped in trying to get to a loose ball. A few minutes later Stanley Tepend bombed a certain try when he was unable to reel in a perfect flick pass from Logan Swann- who had drawn the fullback and left the Papua New Guinean five eighth an easy path to the line. Wellington's vulnerability didn't last long, and the game was put beyond doubt when Tomas Larsson carried three across the line to make it 28-6. Sinfield was again on song, and it was 30-6 with twenty to go. Wellington could easily reach and beat their record.

Larsson crossed again in the 67th, and the 36-6 scoreline was beginning to look like the 2002/2003 semi final. It wasn't that Wellington were playing particularly damaging football- but that the Cannons were simply woeful. Their error count was almost double that of the Cougars, and their completion rate was only slightly better than 52%.

Thankfully for the Cannons fans and players, the Cougars seemed to switch off after they'd put the margin out to thirty. The final twenty minutes were ultimately forgettable, and the Cougars went back into the sheds 36-6 winners.

FULLTIME
Wellington Cougars 36
Jamie Peacock
Luke Priddis
Trent Barrett
Tomas Larsson 2
Richie McCaw
Sinfield 6/7
defeated
Manly Cannons 6
Koru Tirohara
Rogers 1/1

PoM Points
Anthony Minichiello.......3
Luke Priddis.................2
John Sitizein.................1

God damn.... the return of the dominate Wellington?

Did you not read the fact that they played like shit? :P

Lol someone didn't read the match report.....