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Wests Tigers v Manly Sea Eagles

August 20, 2008 - 6:02PM

Saturday, ANZ Stadium, 5.30pm
Referee: Tony Archer

Another huge game for both teams. After losing two in a row, the Sea Eagles must start winning again to make sure of a top-two spot going into the finals. The Tigers need to win to boost their hopes of making the finals at all, after losing to Parramatta on Monday night. The Sea Eagles need to create some momentum for themselves. They can't afford further losses creating self-doubts at a time when they should be revving up for the biggest games of the season. They were very competitive in their 16-10 loss to fellow heavyweights the Storm, but then let themselves down by losing to the Rabbitohs.

Every time the Tigers look like they are heading in the right direction, they slip off the rails again. They made big mistakes early on against Parramatta and the Eels made them pay the ultimate price by scoring tries off them.

The Tigers have got the players capable of making something happen in attack, but they won't get the chance if their forwards aren't competitive against Manly's big pack. After the festival of points scoring they were involved in against the Rabbitohs, expect the Sea Eagles to go back to basics and use their big men to try to dominate the Tigers before setting their backs free. The Tigers are desperate, so they should be committed, but it will be hard for them to tie the Sea Eagles down for 80 minutes.

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