If there was a defining image to sum up these 80 minutes, it was of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves buried beneath three bodies, his thick-cut legs flailing under a mass of maroon. It was 12 seconds into the second half, Manly were leading 12-10 and everyone at 4 Pines Park was waiting to see who would crack first. The hill was packed and teams were stacked: the Vegas victors facing off for a chance to maintain undefeated status.

It can take three players to down all 116kg of Waerea-Hargreaves. That in itself is not what stood out. It was the intensity of the stacks on. As if Anthony Seibold has just gassed up his squad at the break, because the Roosters were lucky to be hanging on and could not get away with highway robbery. Dom Young copped it next, unceremoniously dumped on his backside.

Then Terrell May mishandled, and suddenly three tackles were gone and the Roosters were barely outside their own 10-metre line. By the fifth they had advanced to their 30, and less than a minute after Tom Trbojevic had gathered the subsequent kick, Tommy Talau had scored and Reuben Garrick had converted and the Sea Eagles were ahead 18-10. Two sets. Two minutes. One clear winner.

Then, of course, there was Young. A highway robber dressed as a winger, racing 75 metres from an intercept to score against the run of play. Getting the Chooks back into the game when they had no right to do so and making the sold-out crowd of 17,284 the quietest they’d been all day. Had Trent Robinson’s side won, though, the early season narrative would have been inaccurate.

Even the 21-14 end result did not fully represent Manly’s superiority in the battle of brutality in the middle, where May and Victor Radley and Lindsay Collins were bested and the side had to make an extra 99 tackles just to stay in it as much as they did. That in itself was enough to indicate the Roosters will only find themselves in trouble this season if they allow errors and ill-discipline to blight an otherwise superb first-half goal-line defence.

But the Sea Eagles caught the eye more, and there is a hint of the 2011 premiership-winning outfit about the way they changed the complexion of the game via defensive sets.

“I thought we did a really good job just after half-time,” Seibold said. “We set the tone at the start of the second half with our D and got a bit of reward. We were probably unlucky not to get another try there. The Roosters are a good side. They stayed with us, and stayed in the contest. I was proud of how the boys handled the back end of the game.

“I often talk to the guys about bringing the weapons and playing to their strengths rather than worrying too much about the opposition team. I think we’ve got a team full of weapons. Brooksy’s weapons are taking the line on, he’s got a great kick, gets his body in front. If he can bring those three things next week I’m sure that helps too. His role helps Turbo and the other guys around him.“